A New Twist
by ConnorTempleHatterPotts
Summary: This doesn't start at any particular point in the show, it's just my own twisting of the show. There are new characters, and, a love triangle forms with Connor, Abby, and someone new. FINAL CHAPTER NOW UP- COMPLETE! SEQUEL STORY TO COME SOON!
1. Chapter 1

Connor entered the main corridor of the ARC with a cup of tea and sat down in front of the A.D.D. Leaning back in the chair, he was trying his hardest to stay awake. He hadn't been getting much sleep and was starting to get an irrational fear that it was insomnia. It was typically Connor to get paranoid so easily.

As his thoughts continued- drifting to conspiracies about what the government might be doing to him to cause his insomnia; mind probes, secret chips implanted in his brain by aliens, mind control, etc. -he started slipping into sleep. Until a loud alarm jerked him out of it, causing him to spill his tea all over his lap and jump out of the chair as the hot liquid burned the flesh of his thigh. His screaming, and the little dance of pain he did, attracted more attention than the alarm did.

Lester came out of his office and paused upon seeing Connor and his display. But, he quickly wrote it off in his "Things to try and forget I ever saw" list he had in his mind. He yelled down to Connor, choosing not to comment on his yelling and jumping, "What are you waiting for? Track that anomaly."

"It's- I… I just-" he stuttered. With a sigh, he started typing into the A.D.D. and pulled up the location.

Danny came in, Becker and Abby following, and went up to Connor, leaning on his shoulder casually. "What've we got?" he asked.

Connor slid out from under his arm and replied, "The anomaly is in a remote area around the highway. We might have some trouble finding it, but at least there aren't many people around… no one should get hurt if something comes out."

"Oh, good," Lester said as he walked down the stairs from his office. "Then we won't have much need to worry about civilians snooping about, now will we?" His phone rang in his pocket. He took it out to look at it. "I've got to go. Danny, Connor, Abby, and Becker… try to keep this away from any press." He eyeballed them for a moment with a warning look, and then left out the front door of the building with some of his men following.

"Where do you think he's going?" Abby asked, standing next to Danny.

"No idea. But, it doesn't matter; we've got an anomaly to close. Connor, get the equipment."

**_

* * *

_**

_They arrived at an empty field a while later._ Danny walked over to Connor and said, "Where is it?"

"The detector says it should be right over that hill." He pointed to a large hill in from of them with his gun.

Danny looked at Abby. "Should he really have a gun?" Abby just shook her head and mouthed "No" while Connor wasn't looking. "Alright then." They started over the hill, but when they reached the other side there was nothing there. "What happened? Did it close?"

Connor looked around. "No, it's over there." They spotted it to the far right of the hill and ran to it, finding a woman lying, wounded, in front of it.

Danny reached her first. Kneeling down next to her, he put his fingers on her neck. "I've got a pulse." He leaned closer to her. "Hello? Can you hear me?" But she didn't respond.

Connor kneeled next to her on the other side. "We've got to stop the bleeding, something's bitten her leg." He turned to Becker. "Did we bring the first-aid?"

"Yes, it's in the car, I'll go get it." Becker ran back over the hill.

The woman started moving her head, groaning. Her eyes opened and she sat up, holding Connor's hand to support her. "Don't try to stand; I think your leg might be broken. I need you to tell me what did this to you. Was it small? Big? Ugly… maybe dinosaur-like?"

"Who are you people- wait, you know about what comes out of the orbs?" she yanked her hand away from Connor's when she realised he was holding it.

"Uh… we call them anomalies, but yeah. Did you come through this one?"

"Yes. I didn't think anyone else knew about them." A small squeak came from behind Danny, and a tiny, weasel-like creature came through the anomaly and crawled onto the woman's shoulder.

"Whoa," Danny remarked. "What's that?" He reached out his hand to try and pet it, only to receive a sharp bite. "Ow!" he nearly yelled, jerking back his hand that now had small teeth marks on it.

"It's a Deltatheridium. It only eats insects, don't worry." The woman smiled. "I was in the Cretaceous when I found it; it was being chased by a Spinosaurus. And, before I knew it, I was the one being chased. The bloody thing grabbed my leg before I escaped through the… uh, what did you call it?"

Connor answered, "Anomaly."

"Right. I like that better than the orb." She laughed at herself.

Becker reappeared from behind the hill with a big black box. "Here you go. I called an ambulance too, they'll be here soon. What's your name Ma'am?"

"Dian Brown. The ambulance you called, their part of your little group right? Your group of, what? Anomaly catchers?" Danny was working on her leg, and she was holding Connor's hand again without really noticing.

Connor was happy to correct her accusation, "Actually, we're not just a group. We're a whole research center. We are the ARC." He's voice sounded very proud and like he was trying to sound cool. "Anomaly Research Center. Pretty much says everything right in the title, dunnit?" A cheeky grin spread across his face, causing Dian to stare for a moment, taking in his features… she wakes up from being attacked by a dinosaur to find four strangers surrounding her, one of which she thoroughly enjoyed the presence of. _Connor, _she thought, with a dreamy expression… maybe it was just the loss of blood making her like that.

Danny accidently pulled the rap too tight and Dian groaned in pain, snapping out of her stare and crushing Connor's hand. "Ow, Ow, Ow, Ow!"

"Sorry." She let go.

"Well, good news is, your legs not broken. The creature didn't touch the bone at all; it's just a flesh wound. Now, what about this thing?" He pointed at the Deltatheridium. "Why's it acting like you're its mum?"

"I don't know. I guess it's just grateful that I saved its life." The creature was still on her shoulder; curled into a ball. "But, I do know that if this anomaly doesn't get closed, then we might all be the Spinosaurus' lunch." She got a small, chocolate bar sized, handheld electronic out of her pocket and handed it to Connor. "Here. Just point it at the anomaly and push the red button. That will close it."

Connor pushed the button, and Dian yelled, "No! Not that one!" just a bit too late; the anomaly closed and another appeared.

"Okay, what happened?" Connor threw his hands up in the air as if he'd broken something. "I pushed the red button." He handed the device back to her.

"No, you pushed the _small_ red button!"

"Well, you didn't exactly say big or small, did you?!"

"Ugh, never mind, just help me up and I'll do it."

Danny was standing next to her when he spoke. "No, I don't think you should put any pressure on that leg."

"I'll be fine," she retorted defiantly while Connor helped her stand and supported her on his shoulder. She started to push some buttons on the electronic and things came up on the small screen. "Okay, you've opened an anomaly from the future."

"What? How?!" He exchanged looks with Danny and Abby; it must be like the type of technology that Helen had, to be able to open anomalies.

"All I needed was a big brain and some future technology. Here we go." She was about to push a button when the device was slashed out of her hand by something in the anomaly. "Everyone get back! You, get your gun pointed at that thing." She pointed at Becker and indicated toward the anomaly.

He gave her a look, but obeyed. They all stared at the anomaly until they saw movement. A creature about the size of a horse came bursting out of it. It almost looked like a prehistoric wolf with sabers, long claws and a sail on its back.

Dian spoke in a rushed tone, "Change of plan. That gun won't do any good, I've seen this thing before, and it's way too fast for a bullet to catch it."

Becker ignored her completely and shot at it anyway, only for it to dodge the bullets and then shift into a different, bigger creature. "What the hell?!" Becker's eyes widened. "What is it?"

"It's what Native Americans call a 'Skin Walker.' This thing where the legend came from; they claimed that it was a witch that could shape-shift into any creature… they were half right. And, you've just severely pissed it off, so I suggest we do something." She quickly grabbed a pole out of the backpack that was hanging on her back, and pointed it at the creature… she waited as it charged towards them; waited until it was so close Connor was yelling at her to do something. Then, something shoots out of the pole she was holding, shocking the creature and knocking it to the ground.

Connor flinched at the sound of the creature's screeching in pain. Silence followed. Becker was the one to break the silence, "Is… is it dead?"

"No, just paralyzed," Dian replied. "Let's get it through the… the uh… anoma-"

"Whoa! Whoa!" Connor caught her as she fell unconscious.

Abby ran over to her. "She's lost too much blood; we've got to get her some medical attention, _now_."

_**

* * *

**_

_They arrived at the hospital around noon. _Abby, Connor, Danny, and Sarah were there. Becker was back at the A.R.C, filling Lester in on what had happened.

At the moment, Abby was the only one in the hospital room with Dian; the others were talking to the doctor. When Dian started moving, Abby called to the others, "Guys! She's awake."

It was hardly pleasant for Dian to wake up to a group of people surrounding her. "What time is it?" The question wasn't directed to anyone in particular.

Danny answered. "1:56. you've been out for an hour and a half. How do you feel?"

"Uh… I don't." she was too full of the pain killers to feel much of anything. "Did you uh… get the creature back through the… the thingy." She was defiantly drugged.

"Yeah we did; no worries." Danny smiled.

The doctor came in and said, "Oh, good, you're awake. I was just telling your friends that you can go home now. You'll be a bit… how do I put it… loopy, for a while. The drugs should affect you for a few more hours." He turned to Danny. "If she feels any pain after the drugs wear off, give her one of these." A small yellow bottle was taken out of the doctor's pocket. "Be careful, though. Some patients have developed addictions, so no more than two pills a day." Danny nodded and took the bottle. The doctor left with a pleasant smile on his face that never seemed to leave, he was one of _those_ people.

Dian was staring at her hand in a zoned sort of way. Connor chuckled and said, "Oookaay, I think the drugs are officially kicked in."

"Yeah. Abby, do you mind keeping her at your flat for a while? Just until she recovers and we can sort everything out."

"I guess she could stay on the couch, since we got Connor his own room in the basement." She gave Connor an awkward glance. Ever since their kiss, things have been a bit weird. And now, she wasn't exactly sure how she felt about him getting a more permanent room at her flat. She didn't know what it really meant to him or to her for that matter.

"Great, then let's get her out of here. You and Connor can drop her off at your flat, one of you stay with her and the other come back to the A.R.C so we can finish up for the night."

Danny and Sarah left, leaving Connor and Abby to get Dian out of the hospital. While they had no problem getting her out of the building, getting her into the car was a bit difficult in the state of mind she was in. She kept going limp, and getting distracted by things. Eventually they got her in, and she fell asleep on the way to the flat.

When they got there, Connor carried her in and set her on the folded out couch. "Right. What now?"

"Well, you can stay here. Make sure she doesn't break anything or hurt herself. I'll go back to the A.R.C."

"Why do you get the easy job?"

"Don't argue with me, Connor." She left out the front door.

"Oh… for crying out loud!" Rex flew up next to him, greeting him with a few happy chirps. "Why are woman so complicated, Rex? Bet you never had that problem. I mean, you don't even have to work very hard for a female's attention. You basically fight for your right to mate, and then you get the girl without any say from her. Why can't things be that simple for me?" Rex gave him a few more chirps and Connor laughed. "You know, mate, you'd think I'd get used to how hot it is in here." He looked over at Dian. "You don't think she'd mind if I wore my normal house clothes, do you, Rex?"

After he got undressed, down to his underwear-which of course was very normal for him- he went into the kitchen and found Sid and Nancy eating the chips out of the cabinet. "No! Guys, come on! Get out!" He shooed them out of the kitchen. "Oh, look at this mess." A loud clang came from the living room. "What now?"

In the living room, Dian had woken, she'd knocked over a lamp trying to steady herself. "Sorry," she said when Connor came in the room.

"It's fine. How are you feeling?" He saw that she was still a little drugged. "You know, I think you should sit down." He set her down on the couch and began picking up the pieces of the lamp.

"It's Connor, right?"

"Yeah."

"Why do you and your girlfriend keep three prehistoric animals in your flat?"

"Uh, that's… that's a bit of a long story. They're sort of our pets, I guess you could say. And, Abby's not me girlfriend… no matter how hard I try," he added.

"Oh, sorry." She sat there watching him for a moment as he went into the kitchen and threw away the lamp. She was enjoying it, considering he was in a t-shirt and boxers. Her head tilted as her eyes gazed after him. "You got a girlfriend then?"

He gave her a look. "Um… no, no I don't… currently. I mean, it's-it's sort of complicated; mine and Abby's relationship."

She laughed. "Curiouser and curiouser," she said, obviously wondering about the underwear.

"You should probably get some more sleep." He blushed a little; sort of embarrassed about the conversation.

"No. I can't sleep, it's too hot." She stood up. "I've got to take a shower."

"That's not a good idea." He grabbed both her shoulder, stopping her in her tracks.

"Look, I've been traveling through anomalies for... God knows how long! They don't seem to have showers in the past and I'm afraid it isn't possible to stay in the future long enough for that… so could you just let me go!" He let her go by, a bit shocked by the outrage.

Rex came up to him again. "Women, Rex." Shaking his head, he sat on the couch and let out a large huff of air. "Mind you… she's beautiful, don't you think, Rex? Like a goddess. And she's gonna be staying here for a while..." He smiled to himself as impossible thoughts brewed in his head, then chuckled, knowing he's was being rediculous. He couldn't even get the girl he loved, much less this gorgeous woman he didn't know... although he was just about ready to completely give up on Abby. He had thought it over many, many times; the kiss, and all. But he came to the conclusion that it meant nothing except a thank you... a very... thorough thank you. He sighed and leaned his head back on the couch.

* * *

**TBC in chapters to come! There are 5 chapters so far and number 2 will probably be put up today, so VERY SOON, I promise.**

**Please review- Critisizm is needed and welcome, Praise is loved and thanked... Love for all who review! :)**

**P.S. the T rating comes into play in chapter 2 and on... it may rise to M later, but i'm not sure yet; depends on reviewers. ;)**


	2. Chapter 2

Please note: I do not own Primeval, but I do own the character of Dian and at least one other character that will come into play later. Thank you. :)

**It has been asked how to pronounce Dian's name; it's pronounced Die-an or Dianne. I just want to say that I appreciate reviews, and hopefully you enjoy my fic. :)**

* * *

It was two weeks later, and Dian was just getting used to her new living arrangements. She'd found out so much about these people, and the A.R.C as well. She knew that Abby and Connor's boss, James Lester, has been bugging the hell out of them to bring her down to the home office. He wanted to interrogate her about what she knew, after all… this was a government secret and she knew everything about it. She didn't know how long she was going to have to stay here, her leg was almost healed… but would they let her go?

Abby, Connor, and Danny kept explaining to Lester that Dian was in no condition to go anywhere. But, at the moment that wasn't true anymore. Her leg had healed very nicely and she figured that it'd be any day now that she would have to go see this James Lester and answer many questions. This she was _not_ looking forward to.

But, this morning looked like it was going to be a good one. She'd finally come accustomed to this flat and the people and creatures in it. Hopefully nothing would ruin that. She'd also become pretty fond of Connor… she almost thought that maybe she fancied him a little. She hadn't fancied anyone in a long time. But, there was just something about Connor that… struck a chord in her heart; made her feel like a teenager with a crush.

* * *

Connor woke up to the sound of some music coming from upstairs. He drowsily made his way up the steps, and rubbed his eyes, yawning as he reached the living room. When he opened his eyes he thought he must still be asleep and was dreaming.

His jaw dropped and his eyebrows shot up. Dian was in her underwear, dancing to the music he was hearing. He _must_ be dreaming! This was the first time he'd ever seen her in her underwear, she refused to take her clothes off before, no matter how hot it was in the flat, because it would have made her uncomfortable. Connor guessed that she'd changed her mind…. No, he _had_ to be dreaming.

He pinched his arm, still gawking at her dancing. "Ow!" he cried. Yeah, he wasn't dreaming. But, it didn't matter now, stupid him, his yell made it apparent that he was standing there and Dian spun around quickly, her face a mix of shock and embarrassment.

She ran over to the stereo and turned off the music, the way her body moved as she ran sent a chill through Connor. Then she said to him, "How long were you standing there?" She wasn't angry, just embarrassed; her eyes on the floor and her arms stiffly at her sides, awkwardly.

"Long enough for his open mouth to create a small drool puddle on the floor," Abby said teasingly as she walked by Connor and tapped his chin up, closing his gawking mouth.

He fumbled for words, now he was the one embarrassed. "I was just… surprised, that's all." He glared angrily at Abby for a moment then looked innocently at Dian. "You normally don't wear…" his eyes gazed up and down her body once and he continued, "_That._" He laughed once and smiled.

"Yeah, and this is why. Can you stop looking at me like that?"

He looked away from her reluctantly. "Sorry. Glad you decided to join the 'party' though. It's not like you were any more comfortable dying of heat stroke, eh? Plus, we don't mind, do we Abby?" He had that cheeky grin on his face that was completely Connor.

"I know Abby doesn't mind, and that's fine. But, I also know you don't mind, Connor, and _that's_ the problem." She raised an eyebrow and gave him a look.

Abby was sitting at the kitchen table, starting to butter a biscuit as she spoke, "Don't worry, he'll behave. Won't you, Con?"

"Yeah! 'Course I will. It's cool, I'm… cool. It's fine." He leaned on a chair trying to look cool, only to have the chair flip over and him fall on his face. Jumping back up as quickly as he fell and looking awkward.

Abby laughed. "Smooth, Connor." Dian just shook her head, rolled her eyes and went into the kitchen to get something. Connor stared after her, and for this Abby smacked him in the stomach and said, "Sit down Connor, and close your mouth, you're drooling again," more than a touch of agitation in her voice.

He sat down and started getting some food.

Abby watched him for a moment, staring. She was getting more than a little jealous of how he acted towards Dian. Abby still hadn't really figured out how she felt about Connor… she didn't want anything to be weird between them but, it _was_. Dian being around made it more so in some ways and less in other ways. Abby hadn't expected to feel so jealous that Connor kept ogling another woman. Maybe this confirmed her feelings for him.

She looked away quickly. _Get off that_, she thought, _Connor is a flat mate, nothing else,_ she told herself sternly. But, she just couldn't help the way her heart jumped when she heard him start talking to her. "What?" she said, as she hadn't heard what he was saying.

"Never mind, I'll get it." He reached across her, his arm brushing her collarbone, to grab the salt, which he had apparently asked her to hand him.

She tried to make her heart stop thumping so loudly. It was ridiculous to get so nervous over that… what was wrong with her? Then she looked at Connor again… she saw his face clearly for the first time; how perfect it was and how much she cared for him. The epiphany overwhelmed her and she looked away from him quickly. She let out a sigh of frustration. She was _so_ daft! She'd never wanted to realise it before, but she loved Connor. She sighed angrily again; she had so many issues to work out...

"Abby, you alright?"

"What?" Connor was staring at her like he was preparing for her to explode or something. "Oh… yeah, I'm just… I'm fine. Uh… Connor?"

He hesitated, then said slowly, "Yeeaaahhh?"

"I think… I think we, uh… need to talk."

"Okay… what about?"

"Connor-" she barely got that out, when her phone rang. She huffed with irritation, then looked at the phone. It was a text from Danny telling her to meet him at the ARC as quick as she could. A long sigh came out of her and she reluctantly said, "I've got to go; I'll see you later, yeah?" She got up and started getting dressed.

"Where are you going?"

"Danny wants me at the A.R.C."

"What about me?"

"No, he didn't mention you. Sorry." She came back downstairs and saw the look on his face. "Look, I've got something I've been working on with him and Sarah. It's no big deal, I'll just be a while. And, if an anomaly comes up, I'll ring you. Don't worry, we wouldn't do anything without you, Con. And… we can talk later." She paused. "Now, I've got to go." She left out the front door, leaving him confused.

Dian came back and said to him, "Guess it's just us then, eh?"

"Yeah, I suppose."

"Well, this could be fun… right?" Her face looked worried.

"Yeah! Loads of fun. We could… we could… play scrabble!" He smiled, but she just gave him a weird look.

After they ate, Dian turned on some more music and started dancing again. She was defiantly getting more used to being around Connor, she was more comfortable than before. Actually, she was a lot more comfortable than before. Despite this morning's awkwardness, that is.

As she danced, she went over to Connor and took his hand, and they started dancing to the music together. Laughing and dancing, they were having a good time.

In perfect timing, as the song came to an end, he dipped her… just like in the movies.

He pulled her up from the dip and she smiled. "Wow, you're a good dancer." They both laughed a little. She suddenly became aware of how close they were and her smile faded.

His eyes narrowed. "What? Are you oka-" she grabbed the back of his head and crushed his lips to hers on an impulse. His eyes widened out of surprise. But he recovered quickly, kissing her back.

They parted to catch their breath, but never moved their bodies further apart. She ran her fingers through his hair, sending a chill down his spine, and pulled his lips back to hers. She could feel Connor's growing erection and couldn't help but smile. She was almost surprised that he wasn't doing anything but kissing her back, she could tell by the way he held her waist tight in his hands that he wanted to pull her closer to him… but he didn't. He was being safe; he didn't want to push his luck.

She wasn't really thinking when she ran her hands down his chest, and around to the small of his back... or rather, she didn't expect that to excite him so much. At the feel of her hands running down his chest, Connor involuntarily thrust his waist into her. He immediatly thought he'd gone too far, but couldn't make himself part from her; it had been a long time since he'd been kissed like this.

Suddenly Dian heard the front door open and someone coming up the stairs. She immediately pulled away from Connor, and he whined loudly at the loss.

Abby came rushing up the steps. "Sorry, I forgot something," she explained.

Connor turned his back quickly to hide his erection from her.

Abby headed to her bedroom, looking for what she'd left.

Dian could feel the panic inside her, she felt like a kid that had done something wrong and just knew her parents would find out. It was immature to feel that way, I mean it's not like much happened. So, she kissed Connor a little... maybe a bit more than a _little, _but that was no reason to feel so guilty… but she couldn't help it.

"Ah, here we are." Abby had obviously found what she was looking for. She came out to the living room hurriedly. "Sorry guys. I was half way to the A.R.C when I remembered I'd forgotten something, then I remembered I'd forgotten my keys to the flat so I guess it was a good thing I did come back. By the way, I can't believe you didn't lock the front door when I-" she stopped in the middle of her rushed explanation and looked back and forth from Connor to Dian. "What's wrong with you two? You're acting as if you'd just murdered somebody."

"What?" a nervous laugh slipped out of Dian's mouth. "No… uh, it's fine… no, uh… no murder here." She shut her eyes, knowing she sounded like an idiot. "Um, shouldn't you be going?"

"Oh, yeah. Danny will kill me if I'm not there soon." She headed for the door saying, "I'll see you guys later! Don't wait up." Then she was gone. Dian let out a sigh of relief and dared to look over at Connor; he looked just as guilty as she felt. It was sort of one of those, "What the hell just happened" moments. Everything had gone so fast, it was hard for even her to know. Why had she kissed him?

* * *

Abby arrived at the A.R.C in less than thirty minutes, and no wonder; she was over the speed limit the whole time. She hated that she couldn't at least tell Connor about what she was planning with Sarah and Danny. But, they all knew that he had enough on his plate… what with Cutter dying. He's been so stressed out lately, how could she tell him that they thought Lester was trading and using illegal drugs?

She knew how ridiculous it sounded, and so did Danny and Sarah. But, the evidence was all there; he's been going out to 'meetings' every day of the week, he hasn't been getting into work until noon for the past week and when he does get in he looks like hell, his moods have been crazy but not in the usual way, and most importantly, Danny saw a prescription drug bottle in his desk… prescribed for a Mary L.

He needed help, and today Danny, Sarah, and Abby were going to look around Lester's office and find some more evidence, just to be sure their assumptions were correct. If they were, then they'd set up an intervention. Connor didn't need to know that they thought their boss had turned into a crack-head. Plus, they have to make the decision of whether or not to turn him in to the police; after all… they think he's selling drugs as well. _Think_ was the problem, they needed to _know_.

Her thoughts were interrupted as she walked through the door of the A.R.C. and saw a creature in a cage in one of the rooms. She went up to Danny, who was standing in front of the glass looking into the room. "What's that doing here? And… what is it?"

"Dels-dem-da… something or other… I don't know. whatever it's called. It's the thing that came through the anomaly with Dian. The thing that bit my hand." He glared at the tiny weasel-like creature.

"Oh stop your whining, it was just defending itself."

"Yeah, well I've still got a mark!" His hand had two small puncture marks on it, but they were barely visible anymore.

Abby shook her head at him. "Why's it here? And locked up in a cage?"

"How should I know? Lester wanted it here. The anomaly it came through was closed, so what else are we supposed to do with it?"

Abby smiled wickedly. "I have an idea."

"What are you thinking?" there was a suspicious tone to his voice.

"You just hold out here, I'm gonna go talk to Lester." Still smiling, she walked away leaving Danny alone.

He called after her, "Don't hold him up! He's supposed to go see the Prime minister; we need him to leave as soon as possible! Abby!" She just waved her hand in response.

Sarah bounded up to Danny and looked after Abby. "Where's she going? We can't go through Lester's office until he leaves."

"Speaking of which… do you really think this is such a good idea? I mean, I know Lester's weird, but… really, don't you think this is a bit overboard?"

"I know, but… I mean, you saw the drugs in his desk. He stole a prescription, Danny! Don't you think that's good enough evidence to think he's doing something wrong?"

"Yeah, I suppose, but I just don't think-" an alarm blare striked through the air, the anomaly detection device was alerting them. "Perfect timing…" he gave Sarah a sideways nod that said "sorry" sarcastically. He was saved from their discussion, quite literally, by the bell.

* * *

Connor became increasingly worried about Dian as she stood there, frozen like a block of ice after Abby left. He had been waiting for her to say something but she never did. Slowly and hastily he started speaking, "Dian? Are you… are you okay?" it looked as if she was thinking about the answer to that, but she never said anything. "Look… I understand if you regret kissing me just then but-"

"What? No, Connor I… I don't regret that. I just don't… exactly know how it happened." She sighed and went to sit on the couch. "Look, I didn't expect that to happen. I didn't even know I had feelings for you- I _don't_ know that I have feelings for you… I _can't_ have feelings for you." she hung her head, frustrated.

He looked down at the floor. "Why not?"

"It's… it's complicated." She looked at him compassionately. "Look... there's something I need to tell you, about me." He looked up at her. "Connor, I-"

Connor's phone rang, interrupting her. "Sorry." He looked at the phone. "It's Danny; I've got to go, another anomaly's opened." His face was apologetic and regretful.

"I'll come with you," she said.

"What?"

"Your boss wanted to talk with me anyway. My leg is almost completely healed, so why not?"

He looked at her for a moment. "Okay. Let's go then."

* * *

The ride on the way to the A.R.C. was sort of awkward. It was a relief when they finally made it there. This was the very first time Dian had ever seen the place, when she walked in through the front door… she couldn't help but be impressed. The place was amazing.

Danny came running up to Connor as soon as he saw him come through the door. "It seems to be in an abandoned house near the forest of Dean."

"The Forest of Dean?" there were a lot of memories for him in those words.

"What? What about it?" Danny said.

"That's where we found the first anomaly. Well, the first anomaly we'd ever known of." He paused, looking at the floor. "It was the first time we ever acted as a team; Abby, Stephen… Cutter… and me." His eyes were far away as he remembered, so long ago, that day. It was a dream come true for him when he found out that dinosaurs were coming through links to the past.

He'd lost so much, and now only Abby really knew his sorrow… and even then she didn't know it as well as Connor did. She was never as close to Cutter as he was. And, with Jenny leaving… Abby really was the only one left on the team that knew his pain.

"Connor, I'm sorry that Cutter died. But, mate, you can't let it hold you back. We've got a job to do, and right now we are needed. Cutter would want that, yeah?" Danny didn't mean to seem uncompassionate, but they needed to go.

Connor drew in a deep breath. "Yeah. You're right, let's go." He attempted a smile.

Danny smiled, slapping him on the back. "Good boy." He looked at Dian, and then spoke to Connor. "Go get the equipment ready." Connor nodded and left. Danny turned to Dian. "You should stay here. There was no point in you coming; Lester isn't going to be around long enough to ask any questions."

She thought for a moment and then said, "Yeah... fine, I'll stay here and, uh… research." She had a lot in mind to research, she wanted to find out everything about this place but most of all… she wanted to find her device that opened and closed anomalies. They had taken it from her when she went to the hospital, she is sure that they've been examining it; trying to figure out how she made it or whatever.

Danny looked at her, a little suspicious but shrugged it off. "Okay, good."

As he started leaving, Dian remembered something. "Oh, I almost forgot!" He turned around to look in her direction. "Thank you, Danny. You saved my life. If you guys hadn't been there when I got hurt, I probably wouldn't be here right now."

"No problem." He left, smiling.

Danny went through the front doors and headed to the car where Connor, Becker, and Abby were waiting for him. Before he went there, he'd instructed Sarah to look through Lester's office like they had planned… he knew she'd do it anyway, really he had just wanted to see if she was still going to do it. Despite his feelings about that, he had to push it to the back of his mind right now and focus on the task at hand.

They all jumped into the car, Danny driving, Becker and Abby in the back, with Connor in the passenger's seat; which made Connor quite content.

The ride didn't take very long; it was locating the anomaly that took forever. Becker was getting impatient. "I thought you said it was in an abandoned building, Danny! I don't see any buildings here."

"Calm down." Then he added more quietly, "I could've been mistaken." He yelled over at Connor. "What's the anomaly detector saying?"

"Uh, it should be right over-" he stopped short. "Wait… where's it gone," he whispered to himself.

"Con?" Abby came up to him. "What is it?"

"It's gone. It just… closed."

"No way!" Danny couldn't believe it; they came out here for nothing. "Now what?"

Connor replied, "Well, what if a creature came through it? We need to look around an- OW! What was that for!?"

Abby had elbowed him in the ribs. "SH!" She covered his mouth to stop him from talking; then Connor saw what she was looking at… it was a Spinosaurus, a _very_ big Spinosaurus.

Everyone was frozen for a moment, and Becker held up his gun pointing it at the creature, but Abby pulled it down. "No," she whispered angrily. "We don't kill it." Becker just gave her a look as she pulled out her tranquilizer gun and aimed it at the huge dinosaur.

She took a shot. The creature grunted angrily, looking at them. The tranquilizer obviously hadn't been enough, because it had no problem running straight for them.

Danny panicked a bit. "Abby, shoot it! Shoot it now!" But she couldn't get the tranquilizers in quick enough… it got so close to them before she heard a loud "BANG!" and then a yell from Connor.

The Spinosaurus was dead… shot right in the middle of its head by Becker. But, Connor was knocked unconscious; when the dinosaur fell, it had hit him in the head, leaving a huge purple bruise on his forehead and a few scrapes on his cheek.

Danny ran to him. "Connor, you alright... Connor? We'd better get him to a hospital; he's hurt pretty badly."

Abby's heart pounded with fear as she looked at Connor lying unconscious on the ground. Was he going to be alright? The fear was unbelievably unbearable for her… it was enough to bring her perspective all the way over… she knew now that she really did love Connor. There could be no other possible explanation for how she felt.

* * *

**TBC in chapter 3! Please review! Let me know what's good and what's not, I like to hear what YOU want out of the stories, so tell me what ya think. :)**

**Things get more and more interesting later on... here are a few questions that are answered in chapter 3-- We find out if Connor is going to be alright, or if his injury proves fatal. We find out more about Dian; why she was in the anomaly and where she came from. If Lester is really using drugs, or if he has a more serious reason for the perscription drugs. If Abby works up the courage to tell Connor how she feels. **

**PLUS, an old friend comes back to a HUGE surprise!! ALL IN CHAPTER 3! And there will be many more chapters to come. Thanks for reading! :)**


	3. Chapter 3

Her eyes traced his unconscious body, down to his feet then flicked back up to his eyes; watching for _any_ sign of movement. Abby never left the hospital room, even when everyone else left. Everyone, that is, except for Dian. Abby didn't mind Dian staying, but in all fairness… Abby had known Connor longer, and _she_ should be the one worried about him… not her.

She caught herself in her thoughts and hung her head, ashamed at the jealousy that brewed once more. She didn't hold anything against Dian, she had become a good mate, but it was frustrating how Connor paid so much attention to her in the way he did. So, really, she was just irritated at Connor, for being his usual clueless self.

Her thoughts were interrupted by Connor coughing, coming back into consciousness. She jerked her head up to look at him and smiled a huge grin. "Connor!" She lunged into him, hugging him tight.

"Gah!" he huffed in pain at the force of her hug. "Abby," he strained to speak. "I…can't… breathe."

Backing away, she said, "Sorry." Her smile didn't fade. "I thought… Connor, I'm just so glad you woke up." She gently hugged him again, resting her head on his chest.

This time, he hugged her back with one arm and smiled. "Jeez, how long was I unconscious?"

She laughed a little. "6 hours. You were hit in the head pretty hard. I thought you might have gone into a coma or something…" She looked really guilty. After all, it was her fault he got hurt.

He looked around the empty room. "Where is everyone?"

"They left about half an hour ago; its 3 am, Connor."

"Then why are you still here?"

"I wanted to make sure you were okay. It's my fault you're here, in the first place."

"Aw, Abby… you care." He was teasing, and she grimaced at him. He just laughed.

"Yeah… I do care, actually." She paused, rethinking what she was about to say. Was this it? Was she really going to tell Connor that she-she… loved him? Did she even love him? There was a fine line between loving someone and caring about them as family… why couldn't she just _know_ how she felt? Why did it have to be so hard?

She chickened out. "I care about what happens to that thick head of yours; we would be at a loss at the ARC if anything happen to it." She managed to make it sound convincingly teasing and he laughed at her again. She closed her eyes and tried to muster a smile.

"Oh, Abby," Connor said.

"Hm?"

"I think your phone is ringing."

She looked over at her jacket that was hanging on a chair in the room and went to grab her phone out of the pocket. "Hello?" she answered. "Oh, yeah… hold on." She held the phone away from her ear and said to Connor, "I'll be back later; I've got to take care of something."

He just nodded and watched as she left, talking on her phone. Shortly thereafter, Dian came in and said, "Oh, Connor; you did wake up!" She then rushed over and crushed him in a hug like Abby had.

He gurgled as he couldn't breathe and was happy when she let go. "How are feeling?" she asked.

"Uh… my head hurts, and I'm a little hungry. But, otherwise, I'm fine."

"Oh, do you want something to eat? I can get you something out of the vending machine."

"No, no I'm fine. Just, sit down." He indicated to the chair next to the bed and she sat. "Dian, I have to ask you something…"

For a moment he didn't say anything, so she figured he was waiting for her response. "Okay... shoot." She swallowed, a bit nervous. Whatever it was he wanted to ask her was obviously not just some random question… it was important to him, and she was afraid of what the question was.

"Why did you stay?"

She didn't quite understand the question. "What do you mean, Con?"

"I mean, everyone else left. It's 3 am, and you're still here. I get why Abby stayed; she's my best mate and all but… I don't get why you stayed." He was obviously looking for a deep meaning in her reason for staying, she knew that's what he would want to hear.

"I uh… I don't know."

"You were worried about me?" he suggested.

She laughed a little. "Well, yeah, obviously. But, Connor, I don't know what's happening to me… I've never been so torn in my life."

He didn't seem to understand what she meant. "What are you torn between?" His eyes brightened, hopeing she meant what he thought she did.

He looked her straight in the eyes, and she couldn't stand that so she looked at the floor. "Look… about that kiss."

The corner of his mouth twitched up as he tried not to smile. "Yeah?" And then his face fell. "Wait… you're not going to tell me-" he paused, examining her face, trying to tell what she was thinking. "Dian, please don't tell me that didn't mean anything…"

"No… it did. But, you see… I don't want it to. It's very complicated but, I simply can't have feelings for you, Connor."

"But, why not?" He was tired of the constant battle of indecisiveness with women. He was just about ready to give up on trying to understand anything they said.

"I… I'm not on the right timeline Connor. Anything I do here could screw up the timelines. So, I can't be with you… or anyone for that matter."

"Wait… what?"

She took a deep breath, and then continued, "This isn't my time. I mean… the people here have different lives, something has happened with the evolutionary timeline, and it's happened before but I was able to change the mistake I had made in one anomaly to bring me back to my original timeline but, this time I have no idea what I've done. But, I knew Danny before now… in a different life. He was my dad's best friend. And my dad's name… was Nick Cutter."

The words split through the air like a knife. Connor couldn't speak, only managing to say, "What?" in a breathless voice.

She nodded her head. I heard you guys talking about him; that he'd died. In my time, he was married to a woman named Claudia Brown… does she exist here?"

Connor's head was spinning, so much that it hurt. Cutter had been telling the truth… Claudia Brown did exist in another life. A life that Dian had lived in. Somehow, there are different timelines; all working together… but how? None of this made sense. But, one thing was for certain; Dian must be part of Cutter and Claudia's future in their old timeline, the one that Cutter had changed. So… she was Cutter's daughter. Then… "I wonder…" Connor whispered out loud.

"What?"

He looked at Dian. "Nothing, nothing. It's just… I knew Cutter, your father. But he came from that timeline to here, where Claudia Brown doesn't exist. Her name is Jenny Lewis here… Cutter had tried to tell us that but, we never really believed him."

Dian shook her and said, "But, he never disappeared… I don't understand, how could their be two of him? I mean, he's still back home in my timeline; if he's dead here then… I don't understand."

"I know… nothing makes sense. Maybe… maybe we all live different lives… I-I don't know…" His head burned, he couldn't think straight. All he could think was; _what the hell was going on?_

* * *

It was 7am when Lester got into the A.R.C.; sooner than he's been getting in lately. He walked up the stairs to his office and sat down in his chair, then opened the desk drawer. His hand started rummaging through the drawer quickly looking for something that was obviously missing. "Where is it?!" he half yelled frantically; the little yellow pill bottle was gone.

"Looking for this?" Sarah stood at the door to his office, holding the bottle in her hand. Danny came up next to her, holding another pill bottle that they'd found in Lester's desk. Sarah looked at Lester's confused and angry face compassionately. Then she walked to him and held the bottle up as if to display it to him, and she said, "You don't need them, Lester. We're here to help you. It's okay… we can get through this together, yeah?"

Lester gave her a look. "What the _hell_ are you talking about?!"

"It's alright, mate; we know what you've been doing," Danny said.

"Really? You do? And what is it that I've been doing?"

"Smuggling, selling, stealing drugs, and using drugs… well… at least, using drugs; we don't know that you've been doing any of that other stuff but-."

Sarah jumped in to say, "But, it's okay. 'Cause we're going to help you."

Lester paused, looking like he was ready to punch them. "Oh, for the love of God! You're both idiots!" He shook his head in disbelief. "I don't know why I didn't just put Connor in charge of this team! He's probably less of an idiot than you two are." He looked at them and explained, "I'm not smuggling drugs or stealing them or even using them!" He grabbed the bottle out of Sarah's hand. "These are for my wife." He paused for a moment, his jaw tighening. "My wife, she…she's dying. I've had to take care of the kids and her for the past week."

Danny and Sarah glanced at each other. "I'm-I'm so sorry, Lester… we didn't know-"

"No, you didn't. And I wanted to keep it that way." He sighed. "A temporary replacement is coming today. He'll be acting in my position for at least a week while I take care of my personal business. And you two-" he was interrupted by yelling from Connor, who had just rushed in the front door of the A.R.C.

"Danny!! Sarah! Abby!" he yelled. Danny and Sarah ran down the steps to meet him, he was panting heavily and looked like crap. "Shit!" he cursed when he dropped the load of papers he was carrying in his arms. "Where's Abby?" he huffed out as he picked up the papers.

"I don't know, I thought she was still at home." It was Danny who had spoken. "You look like hell, mate. You should get some rest."

He ignored Danny's remark and regarded Abby's absense. "No-" he took a deep breath, trying to catch his breath, before continuing. "She wasn't at the flat. But, nevermind!" He waved his arms, discarding the subject. "I've got something important to tell you guys. Look," He set all the papers he was carrying down on a table and scattered them about. "I've drawn up diagrams of the anomalies, and traced all the different timelines and, with Dian's help, I was able to put down the future times as well. So, it's sort of a visual guide, and it should help us track the anomalies… somehow."

"Okay, but what's this all about? You need to calm down, mate."

"Look, Dian told me something last night that changed the entire way we should be looking at the anomalies. And, after thinking about it all day; I've finally come to a conclusion about what it all means." His grin was as wide as it could be.

"What what all means? You're not making any sense."

"Uh…" He moved his hands through the air in a very Connor-like way. "To make a long story short; Dian is from an alternate reality. But, not of our reality… of Cutter's. The timeline he lived in before this one. A parallel universe to that timeline, if you will. What happened there was that Cutter didn't come here to this timeline; his life happened in that parallel universe the way it would have if he'd never created this evolutionary timeline." He was speaking exactly like Cutter did when he got excited about a new discovery.

Sarah spoke for the first time since she'd come down here. "So… you're saying that there are parallel universes? Like in the movies?"

"Well, yeah, sort of. But, think about it! Look," He pointed to his papers again. "The anomalies must lead back to those universes somehow, and when timelines are changed here, it's different there in the parallel universe. We all live different lives somewhere else! What we need to figure out is… how Dian was able to come through an anomaly and get from one universe to this one, _and_ how she got to _this_ timeline and not her own."

Danny was so obviously confused. "Okay, I think I get what you're saying…" he was unsure.

"You just have to trust me, I know what I'm saying sounds crazy but… it's the truth, and I need someone that can help me figure this out." He paused for a moment. "Cutter would've attacked this chance to understand what was going on here."

"Look, I'm with you, mate. I'll do what I can to help but-"

"No. No, I need someone who already knows about this, someone who knew Cutter and knew about Claudia Brown… I need… I need…"

A familiar voice came from the front door of the A.R.C. "Okay, Connor. What's the big emergency?" Her voice was angry, which was understandable considering she never wanted to come back to this place again.

Connor smiled, looking at her. "Jenny."

"Jenny!" Danny repeated. "What are you doing here?"

"Connor called me, saying that it was a life or death situation and I had to come. Obviously he lied."

Connor looked guilty. "I just thought you might like to meet someone."

She shook her head in disbelief. "I don't want to meet anyone! Connor, I'm done with this place… for good!" She started to leave, and nearly ran into Dian as she came through the door. "Sorry."

Dian stared at her and said, "Mum?"

"Excuse me?"

Connor walked up to them. "Jenny… I _thought_ you might like to meet your daughter."

Jenny spun her head to look at him and stared disbelieving. "What?! I don't- I don't _have_ a daughter." Looking back and forth from Connor to Dian a few times, Jenny started thinking Connor had gone mad.

"Well… _technically_ I guess she isn't your daughter. But, in a way she is… she's Claudia Brown's daughter."

Jenny stood there, bewildered and shocked. She had been put through so much hell over this Claudia Brown…

* * *

**TBC in Chapter 4!**

**So, lots of questions were answered in this chapter! Please review! :)**

**In Chapter 4 we will find out more about Jenny and Dian's relation to each other, the team battle some new creatures, Lester introduces his temporary replacement, and we find out where Abby's gone... and much more. All in Chapter 4! Thanks for reading! :)**


	4. Chapter 4

They were, yet again, in the hospital. Jenny had insisted, no… _demanded_ getting a blood test to prove Dian was her daughter. And, maybe the test would be negative… maybe Jenny isn't _really_ as much like Claudia Brown as Connor thought, nobody really knew.

Connor was currently filling Jenny in on _why_ Dian was her daughter… or rather, _how_. Sarah had come to understand more about it as well, but Danny stayed back at the A.R.C. waiting for Abby; everyone had gotten worried about her, as she'd gone awoll.

Dian was just waiting for the test results now. She was deep in thought; so it startled her when Connor's phone rang, singing "White and Nerdy" by Weird Al; a very fitting ring tone for Connor.

He answered the phone, rather embarrassed by the ringtone. "Hyello?" the person on the other end started talking; it must not have been good news. "Oh, you've got to be kidding me! Yeah… okay, Danny; I'll be there soon." He hung up. "Another anomaly's opened, it's in a lake and it looks like whatever's come out of it has been making some trouble… it's already killed 3 people." He gathered up his things.

"I'll go with you," Dian said quickly, getting up and walking to the door. She would do anything to get away from the awkwardness in this room.

"Uh… Sarah? Are you and Jenny good?" She nodded at him. He looked at Dian. "Okay, but we have to hurry."

"No problem." She ran out the door, and he followed. When she got to the parking lot, she didn't head to the car they'd driven here in… oh, no; she went straight for the fastest car she could find. Lucky enough, it wasn't locked. She jumped in and yelled to Connor, "Get in!"

"What?! You-you can't just… steal a car!"

"You said we needed to get there fast… this is how we're going to do it. Don't worry; the A.R.C. can take care of any lawsuits that may come up from this." She smiled maliciously. Connor's eyebrows shot up; he was impressed and shocked at the same time. He jumped in the car and they shot of, like a bullet, down the road.

Connor clung to the seat of the car like a frightened cat as they swerved through the turns on the road at 100 miles an hour. "I think you can slow down!"

Dian laughed loudly, amused. "Oh come on, Connor! Have a little fun!"

"I'd rather be alive, and _not_ die in a car crash. Actually… I'd just settle for not dying." She laughed at him again, slowing down to 80, but Connor barely relaxed.

They pulled into a parking lot at a park/animal reserve centre. Currently, the park was empty; everyone must have fled… and who could blame them?

Danny and Becker were waiting down on the shore with the Anomaly locking machine. Connor set to work getting it set up and ready to use.

"Where's the creature?" Dian asked.

"Well, if we knew that we wouldn't just be standing around, now would we?" A typical Danny response, that was.

Dian gave him an annoyed look. "Don't be a smart-ass, Quinn."

Becker didn't leave time for Danny to respond to that. "Look! Over there." He pointed towards something moving through the water. "What's that?"

Dian immediately ran to the water's edge, peering further out into the lake.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Becker grabbed her arm. "Be careful."

"I'm fine." She pulled her arm away from him and gave him a reassuring nod. Peering out at the creature moving about in the water, she could just make out what it was. "Elasmosaurus, late Cretaceous… plesiosaurs; aren't they gorgeous?" She was admiring the giant sea creature, her eyes shining with pride.

Everyone gawked as the creature lifted its 19 foot long head out of the water and roared, exposing sharp teeth inside its small head. It continued a series of bark-like roars. "What's it doing??" Connor yelled over the noise.

Dian shook her head, her eyebrows arching into a frown. "I'm not sure! It's like… it's calling to something." Her eyes opened wide. "Connor… I think we need to lock the anomaly; NOW!"

"But we don't even know where it is. It's somewhere in the water. And… this machine can't get wet."

"Then how were you planning on closing the anomaly!?"

"Well, I han't actually figured that out yet…"

"Oh, for the love of-" she said under her breath. She tried to think of what to do, but it was too late; a smaller Elasmosaurus came out of the anomaly, followed by two more… it was her offspring that she was calling to. She looked around quickly, and quite luckily spotted a large fishing boat at the dock. "Becker, come with me." She headed towards the boat, Becker hesitantly following behind her.

"What the hell is she doing?" Danny asked, half to himself. Connor just shrugged.

"Wait," Dian said to Becker when they got to the boat. "You get in the boat. We need Connor." She faced back where Connor and Danny were and shouted, "Connor! Bring that machine here on the boat!" Yelling was a bad idea; the creatures noticed them for the first time, the mother roaring aggressively and posing to protect its young. "Oh shit." Dian said, and jumped into the boat. When she looked back at Connor he looked frightened and confused on what to do. "Connor! Get in the boat!! Come on! Quickly!" She started the boat and as soon as he was in, and took off in the water towards the creatures.

"What exactly is the plan here?" His voice was frightened.

"Becker… shoot your gun up into the air. Con… turn that emergency siren on." As they got closer to the creatures, Becker started firing his gun in the air and Connor turned the siren on. That, added with the noise from the motor on the boat, started to _really_ frighten the Elasmosaurus'. Enough so that they fled away from the boat as it got closer.

The plan was to frighten them back into the anomaly, and it was working. But, not without consequence; the adult Elasmosaur turned on the boat, ripping parts of it to shreds as she fled. Then they fled straight into the water, diving down deep. Eventually there was a flash of light, indicating that they'd gone through the anomaly.

Dian stopped the boat in front of the glowing in the water. "Connor?"

He came to stand next to her. "Yeah?"

"You think you can close it with that machine?"

"Uh… I-I don't know, but I can give it a shot, eh?" His mouth twitched up at the side and he laughed twice.

"Good." She backed away, letting him work on that. "Becker, come point your gun at the anomaly; just in case anything else decides to take a wander through." There was no reply. Dian looked around, but Becker was nowhere on board. "Becker?" Running to the edge of the boat, she saw a ripped piece of cloth hanging off the side, and blood dripping from a fishing spear.

Becker must have been thrown off the boat when the creature was attacking it; rocking it back in forth. It looked like he'd been flung into the fishing spear and wounded on the way. "Connor!" Dian yelled. "Connor, Becker's gone! I'm going after him!"

He ran up to her and grabbed her arm. "No! Another creature just came through the anomaly; you can't go in the water."

"What?! What came through?"

"A mosasaur; it'll kill you in a heartbeat. Don't go in; we'll just get help."

"There's not enough time! Becker's going to be dino food in no time if we don't do something!" She grabbed a rope, and tied it around her waist, then took off her shirt, preparing to jump into the water. She handed Connor the rope, and grabbed the fishing spear in one hand. "When I pull on the rope, you pull me in immediately, got that?"

"No! No, you can't do this, it's too dangerous."

"I have to. I'm sorry."

He grabbed her arm tight so she couldn't go. "Let me do it."

She shook her head. "I can't do that, Connor. Let me go… please!" He looked into her eyes, and slowly let her arm go. "I'll be fine," she whispered. Then she grabbed the back of his head in her free hand, kissing him quickly. When she parted, she immediately jumped into the water.

All Connor could do now was wait for her to pull on the rope. His eyes gazed frantically about the water, looking for any sign of her. As focused as he was on the water, his lips tingled from the kiss… it seemed so perfect, he just wished it had of lasted a second longer.

After a minute he saw Dian's head come up for air, but she immediately dived back down into the water. Suddenly, something bumped into the boat, rocking it from side to side. Then Connor saw the mosasaur come from under the boat, heading in the direction where Dian was. He panicked and tried to think of what to do, and then felt a hard tug on the rope.

If he pulled her in now, she would run straight into the mosasaur. So he did the only thing he could think of, and tied the rope to the opposite end of the boat securely. Then ran to the front of the boat and grabbed a large basket, chucked it as far as he could throw it, and yelled to grab the dinosaurs' attention.

Once it was distracted, he pulled in the rope as fast as he could. When Dian was only a few feet away… the inevitable happened. The mosasaur swam straight for her, clamping down on her right leg. Dian screamed in agony, trying her hardest not to let go of unconscious Becker.

"Connor!" she screamed. She tried, and successfully stabbed the creature in the eye with the fishing spear. It immediately backed off her leg, allowing Connor to grab Dian's hand and pull her and Becker onto the boat.

"Are you okay?" his voice was frantic; he didn't have a clue what to do.

She nodded, breathless. "Get the creature back through the anomaly."

"You need help! Look at your leg!"

"Connor! Now!"

He ran to the steering wheel and started running the boat around, eventually finding and chasing after the mosasaur, chasing it straight back into the anomaly, which closed shortly thereafter.

"Get us back to shore," Dian said weakly. She was losing a lot of blood, and so was Becker. Connor mindlessly drove as quickly back to the shore as he could. Danny helped get them into the car and started driving them to the hospital… everything was black from then on. Connor's mind shut from the shock.

* * *

The doctor said that Becker was going to be fine, but Dian had lost too much blood. It was the most miracle of all miracles that Connor's blood was the same type as Dian's; 0 negative. It was a miracle because of how rare that blood type is.

After the blood transfusion, Dian was able to leave. She was sitting on the side of the hospital bed when Connor came in. "You ready to go?"

She replied, "Not just yet. I'm still kind of soaking it all in… the trauma, you know?"

"Are you sure you want to leave? You can always stay overnig-"

"Yes… I'm sure," she interrupted him. She looked down at her cast leg. "My leg heals once from being bitten by a dinosaur, and then shortly after gets re-bitten all over again… What the _hell_?!"

Connor laughed loudly. "You're mutton for Dinosaurs." He laughed until his sides hurt at his stupid joke.

Dian couldn't help but laugh too. "Connor, you are such a dweeb." She shoved him, lightly.

They left the hospital and headed to the ARC. They had only a few more things to take care of before they could all go home for the night. It had been a _long_ day.

When they got to the ARC, Jenny was sitting down in the middle of the main room; she looked bothered by something. Dian stayed behind the others, waiting by the front door of the building like a shy child.

"Jenny?" Connor said, putting a hand on her shoulder. "You okay?" All she did was nod. He looked at Sarah and asked, "What did the blood results say?"

She paused for a moment. "They were positive. Technically she's blood related to Jenny." Sarah turned to Jenny. "Congratulations, it's a girl." That must have been her attempt to lighten the mood, but it didn't.

Dian was behind Connor now, and heard what Sarah said. "Jenny. I want you to know; you don't owe me anything. We may have the same blood, but I understand that you are not Claudia Brown. You're not me mother. I don't expect, nor do I want you to act like you are…"

Jenny looked at her and nodded. "But… Cutter, he-he's your father?"

"Yeah. He is; in another life, that is."

Jenny exhaled and said, "I'm going home; it's been a long day, but… I'll keep in touch and… I don't know… think about what I'm going to do now."

"Jenny I don't want-"

"No… no; enough. I don't want to talk about this anymore. I'm tired, I want to go home." She went to her, and surprisingly… hugged Dian. "I'll keep in touch." She smiled softly and left.

"Yeah, I don't think she's gonna forget about this…" Danny remarked.

"Shut _up_, Danny!" She flung a clipboard at him and it smacked him in the gut.

"Ow! What'd I say?"

Connor gave him a look and went after Dian. He caught up to her. "Hey. You alright?"

"Yeah, I just want to go home, Con… I want to get away from all this. When can I go _home_? I mean, back to my time? My world. I want to see my mum and dad again, I want to see everyone."

He nodded his head, understanding. "I don't know. Why haven't you used that device to go home? You said that you were stuck in the anomalies for a long time, but… you could've just opened an anomaly to your world."

"No… I couldn't. I can only go past and future. There's no way to use the device to go to stupid, parallel universes." She was agitated and frustrated. "I need to go home, Connor."

"What about…" his eyes hit the floor, then he continued. "What about me? If you leave… I'll never see you again."

She opened her mouth like she was about to speak, but nothing came out. Then Lester's voice called out, and caught everyone's attention. Everyone gathered around to listen to him. "As few of you know," he glared at Danny and Sarah. "I'm not going to be here for a while. The minister has hired a temporary replacement to take over for a week or so. So, I'd like you all to meet Eric Kingswood; you're new temporary boss."

A tall, muscular man stepped up beside Lester; he looked more like a military man than a business one like Lester was. Eric was handsome, very handsome, with short light brown hair, beautiful green eyes, and a very rugged facial structure. He couldn't have been older than 28 by the looks of him.

"Well, alright; you can all leave now. Mr. Kingswood will be here Sunday to direct you. Just carry on work as usual and you'll hardly know I'm gone." Everyone parted; Eric said something to Lester and then disappeared into his office. "Ah, Dian," Lester said, catching her off guard. He came up to her. "I was thinking of making you an offer." He paused. "Well, go on then… ask me what it is."

She hesitated. "Okay… what is it?"

"I'd like for you to stay around for a while, apparently you could be very useful. What do you say? Would you like to stick around for a while longer? Help us out? Just until we can get you back home, that is."

She looked at Connor, and then back at Lester. "Uh… sure… I'd love to, I guess…"

"Well, good. I'll see you when I get back then." He left.

Connor turned to her and said, "Welcome to the team." Smiling, he held out his hand to shake hers. She just shook her head and turned to walk out the door and he followed, laughing a bit.

Becker caught her and she cursed inaudibly… she was _so_ close to getting out the door. He reached her and said, "Thank you, Dian… you saved my life."

He reached out to shake her hand and she gave him a look. Smiling, she hugged him. "You're welcome." She paused a moment. "Oh, and Becker?"

"Yes?"

"Put a shirt on, yeah?" He was bare-chested, obviously because his shirt had been totally ruined by blood. "Some people have started to notice." She glanced over at Sarah, who had been staring at Becker. Dian winked at him and headed out the front door. Connor gave Becker a "good luck" look as he went by.

They made it back to the flat. And they were _exhausted_ from the day's events. They did figure out where Abby'd been; her brother, Jack, was having some problems and she had to go help him out. She said she wouldn't be back for a week.

On the bright side, she'd convinced Lester to let them keep the Deltatheridium in their flat, he now had a name; Nick. Cutter would have loved to have a prehistoric creature named after him.

Dian pet all the creatures and was laughing at Sid and Nancy playing together, as they tumbled over each other. "Wicked. It's like a prehistoric zoo in here." She stood up and rubbed her hands over her face. "I'm exhausted."

"Yeah, well… we did good today," Connor replied.

She smiled. "That we did. _You _did great today, Con. Thank you for helping out. You know… you saved my life." She hugged him, and he happily hugged her back. He sighed contently while they hugged.

It was so perfect. She felt so good in his arms. "Erm… Connor?"

"Hmm?" he sighed as they were still hugging.

"Uh… I think you're a bit too happy about this hug…" She pulled back and looked down.

He turned around, embarrassed. "Sorry." His cheeks turned bright red with embarrassment.

She laughed. "Don't be."

He turned back to her, his eyes looking hopeful. "What's that supposed to mean?"

She looked uncomfortable. "It means… I-I don't know…"

He started to walk towards the hallway.

"Where are you going?" she asked.

"To take a cold shower…"

She tried to hold back a smile, unsuccessfully. "Hey, Connor." He stopped and turned around again. "I guess I'm going to be here for a while. And… who knows, maybe I'll-I'll never be able to go back to my world. But, what I'm trying to say is…" She reached up and kissed him lightly on the lips, but, yet again, it didn't last as long as he desperately wanted it to.

Still, it was enough to freshly arouse him. "Dian… that's not helping…"

"Oh, sorry! Uh… go take your shower." He walked off quickly and she couldn't help but chuckle.

She sat down on the couch and turned on the telly. Suddenly a thought occurred to her. Abby's going to be gone for a week… how could she bear being around Connor _alone_ for a whole week? She didn't know if she had it in her to keep herself from acting on the feelings she was trying desperately to suppress. With Abby there, she always had something to remind her that she shouldn't be with Connor. But now… now what did she have to keep her from giving in to Connor's constant charm?

She still couldn't allow herself to fall for him… she would never be able to go home if she developed a relationship here. Plus, it could very well alter the timelines somehow. This was bad… and it was going to be a very _long_ week…

* * *

**TBC in chapter 5! Please review!**

**I can't even begin to sum. up what's to come in Chapter 5!! All i'm going to say is... someone comes back from the dead. ;) And... no, that's all i'm gonna say! Keep reading!**

**Thank you for reading! I'll have the next chapter up soon, I promise! :)**


	5. Chapter 5

**Okay, this is the shortest chapter yet, but it's also the one with the most Cliff-hangers. haha! I'll HAVE to get chapter 6 up extra soon after leaving this many questions. I'll try!**

**Hope you enjoy it, though! :)**

* * *

There was a voice calling her name, over and over again, saying; "Dian! Dian!" When she opened her eyes, she realized it was Connor. He was standing over her, trying to wake her up. "Finally! You're a deep sleeper, you know that?" He chuckled. "Do you want some breakfast?"

She blinked the sleep out of her eyes and said, "Uh, yeah but… one question… Why aren't you wearing a shirt, Connor?" The absolutely only thing he was wearing was his boxers.

"Oh, yeah…" He stood up straight and looked at his bare chest. "Well… Sid and Nancy tore up a bunch of my shirts, and all the others are in the wash. Hope you don't mind."

He smiled and went into the kitchen, leaving Dian staring after him. She whispered to herself, "No… don't mind at all." She smiled cynically and got off the fold-out couch that was currently a bed.

She limped over to the kitchen table and sat down. Connor had set a nice breakfast. He came in with a kettle of tea and some English muffins. "Here we go," he said as he sat down on the other side of the table. He smiled at her and her heart fluttered, as it usually does when he smiles at her… something that she wished would stop happening.

"This looks great, Connor. Um… what's the occasion?"

"What, I can't make breakfast?" She stared him down. "I just wanted to do something for you. How's your leg, by the way?"

"Fine," she said blandly. Dian didn't really feel like talking about her stupid leg. But she couldn't stand the awkward silence that had just accumulated.

Connor thought that spending alone time with Dian would be fun. But, so far, it has just been awkward; no matter how hard he tried to make it not. He sighed and they ate in silence.

It was Saturday, so they had the day off… a whole day here at the flat… together… Alone… this wasn't going to be easy.

After they finished eating, Dian went to feed all the creatures. Nick was adjusting well to living in the flat, although he did get a little hot sometimes since he had fur, but otherwise he was happy.

"Dian?" Connor called from the living room.

She appeared from the hallway. "Yeah, Con?"

"Do want to go do something today? Like, get a drink, or something?" What was he doing? He didn't know… it was just the first thing that came into his head and he said it… was he asking her out on a date?

"Um…" She didn't know what to think. Was Connor really asking her out on a date? As much as she thought she couldn't, a big part of her wanted to say yes to a date with him. And she absolutely knew she had feelings for Connor… but she couldn't do it. Could she? But, what would happen if she stayed here today? Him shirtless, both of them in their underwear… but she didn't want to go out, even if he didn't mean a date… so she would distract herself, that's what she'd do… "Suppose we just stay in today, Connor. I don't feel like going out, yeah?"

"Oh, yeah, yeah… it's fine…" Part of him was relieved and another disappointed.

She sighed, irritated at herself. "I'm gonna go take a shower, could you check Rex's water bowl?"

Connor nodded. When she left, he sighed and sat at the edge of the folded out couch. He sat there, thinking about what to do. Dian liked him; he knew that… so maybe if he made the first move; he was tired of waiting, first Abby and now Dian... when would the torture stop?? He had obviously waited too long with Abby, he couldn't lose Dian too.

He had to do something different. He had to change. It was time for Connor to man up, and show Dian how he felt.

Dian reappeared from the hallway. "Connor, have you seen the hair brush?"

He walked over to her, and tried to be smooth. He put his hand on the small of her back and pulled her to him, kissing her. He held on to the new posture, and strong man physique he had, for as long as he could. But, when Dian started to kiss him back, he melted back into himself.

He wanted to try… just once… he had to try. Opening his mouth slightly, he shoved his tongue past her lips and into her mouth. She was shocked for a moment, but didn't back away, just kissed him back, sending a shock wave through Connor. He moaned as she suddenly threw him against the wall, bringing up a whole new arousing.

Her mouth came down to his neck and he dug his short finger nails into her back and pulled her into him.

His hands made their way to the bottom of her tank-top and started pulling it up. Dian gasped and suddenly backed away, saying, "Wait, wait, wait, wait…"

"What?" Connor cried out in a complaint. She was killing him.

She looked at him and said, "Connor, I'm just… I'm…" her eyes started to water. She whispered, "I'm afraid."

Walking up to her, he lifted her chin and looked into her eyes, saying compassionately, "Hey, hey… it's alright. What are you afraid of?"

She paused. After about one minute, she spoke. "It's been six years, Connor." He shook his head, confused. "I lived on the other side of the anomalies for six years," she explained. "I lost the only person I'd ever loved when I got lost in the anomalies. I don't want to feel that pain again…" She pulled her head away and stared at the wall. "I've never had a serious relationship that didn't end in so much pain. I don't want to get hurt again, Connor...I don't think I could take it."

He caressed the side of her face in his hand and gave her a slight smile. "You'll always be hurt if you don't let yourself love again." His heart beat faster, the longer he looked into her beautiful eyes. Her face was so perfect; he wanted her to be his… if she would only let him be with her.

She held his hand on her face and then nodded. "Okay, you're right." She thought for a long moment. Then she reached out and kissed him, her tongue feeling against his. She pulled back, their heads leaned against each other, and said, "Okay… I give up."

Dian shoved him onto the couch and pulled off her tank-top. Connor smiled and said, "Finally." Then he threw her under him and finally got what he wanted…

* * *

Jenny had come home last night wanting to crash, but instead she was _still_ awake. She couldn't stop thinking… thinking about Nick. She'd spent the last months desperately trying to forget about him, and now she happens upon his daughter from another timeline that was, in some way, _their_ daughter.

Now she was sitting on her couch, in endless thought, when her doorbell rang. She slowly and reluctantly went to the door, opening it to find a man standing there. "Becker? What are you doing here?" she said, surprised. He looked different; instead of wearing his usual ARC clothes, he was wearing a bright red t-shirt and jeans. And, to her, he looked a lot less... muscular. She thought maybe he was getting sick or something; there was some sort of drastic change in him.

"Claudia Brown." His voice was triumphant, as if he'd been searching for her.

"What?! Becker, are you okay?"

"I'm sorry… please forgive me, Claudia." Before she could respond, he threw a punch, knocking her unconscious. Then he held his hand from the pain that pulsed in it and looked like he was about to die from guilt. "Oh, i'm so sorry, Claudia!" he sighed, then said, "I had to... Nick's been looking for you…"

* * *

Abby finally arrived in Sussex, where Jack had rented a flat… one that he now couldn't afford. He'd gambled out all his money, and was still in debt; $1,000 in debt, and _she_ was the one that had to help him. All she could think is that her brother was an idiot, and how much she'd like to strangle some sense into him.

Now she was headed to his flat; ready to lecture him to death. When she got there and walked up to the door, holding out a fist to knock on it, the door flung open in front of her and an arm grabbed her, pulling her in the building.

"Jack, what are you-"

"SHHH!" He shut the door behind her and immediately looked out the window, just barely peeping through the blinds. He whispered, half to himself, "Good, they didn't see you."

"What? Who, Jack?"

"Look, Abby… I sort of lied about why I asked you to come here."

"Jaaack… What's really going on?" she asked hesitantly.

"Uh…" He walked over to the kitchen, and spoke while he looked for something. "I know you told me to leave your work alone, but… I couldn't."

"Jack!"

She was about to yell at him but he spun around and said, "Just listen! About a week ago I saw another one of those things, the uh… anomalies, right? Anyway, it was here… I mean, right here; outside this flat, in the yard there. I couldn't just do nothing about it… I've seen what those things can do. I saw the future, Abs; I can't just forget that…"

Abby looked at him with wide eyes. "What did you do, Jack?"

"Just look," he took out a camera from one of the kitchen drawers and handed it to her. "This guy has been following me ever since he came through that anomaly thing."

She scrolled through the pictures until it got to the one he was talking about. She dropped the camera and covered her mouth with her hand. She barely whispered, "Cutter."

He picked the camera up off the floor. "Who?"

"Where did he go, Jack??"

"That's what I'm trying to tell you; he's been watching me. Him, and a few others as well."

"Why? What did you do?"

"Nothing! I mean… I don't _think_ I did anything." He looked confused.

"What do you mean? How can you not know if you did anything?"

"I don't remember anything after going through that anomaly thing. It's like I blacked out or something and when I woke up, I was outside my flat and those guys haven't left since."

She went to the window and looked out, there were three men standing inconspicuously on the side-walk; if it wasn't for Cutter, she wouldn't have known it was the guys Jack was talking about. And, as if they could see her, they started walking towards the flat. After about a minute, Abby heard a knock on the door and a familiar Scottish accent saying, "Jack, open the door. I have something to give you." Abby threw the door open, more excited than anything to see Cutter again, but not like this… There he stood, with a gun in his hands and another on a gun belt around his waist…

* * *

**So, PLEASE review!! And, thank you for reading! I'll try getting Chapter 6 up soon! :)**


	6. Chapter 6

Connor woke up at six the next morning, lying on the couch. He thought it might have been a dream; what happened last night. But, there was Dian, lying next to him sleeping. Her head was resting on his chest and her arm slung over his stomach. He couldn't have been happier or more content at that moment… so why did he suddenly think of Abby?

He hadn't talked to her since she left. He wondered if she would be angry at him for sleeping with Dian. No… why would she be? She had no reason to be angry with him, but still… he had a lot to explain to her when she came home.

His stomach twisted with guilt. He still had feelings for Abby… was that fair to Dian? Was he… was he turning into a man-ho? _Oh, God! I've used my charm for evil,_ He thought. He felt terribly guilty, but there was no denying the unbelievable happiness he felt, either. Last night was perfect, and he wanted to make this morning even more perfect for Dian.

Slowly and carefully, he slipped out from under her and got off the couch, then he tip-toed down the stairs to the basement. After he got a clean shirt and boxers, he made his way back upstairs where he was greeted by Sid, who barked a couple times which usually indicated that he was hungry. "Sh! Sid, mate, be quite!" he whispered harshly, grabbing Sid's mouth and holding it shut. He let go when the noise stopped.

Connor looked back over to Dian; she was still sleeping. He sighed with relief. "Come on Sid, let's get you something to eat, mate."

* * *

Abby stared disbelieving; a gun being pointed at her by Nick Cutter, she didn't think it was possible. "Cutter?" she said in a small voice. "Cutter, it's-it's me; Abby."

"I know who you are Miss Maitland. How you can be alive is a whole other question. One of my men killed you a year ago; shot you after you'd tried to kill me."

"No, Cutter, I'm not… I never did that-"

"Shut up." He pointed his gun at Jack. "I need to talk to your brother." He walked pass Abby, over to Jack. "Why did you come back, Jack? You came through the anomaly… Why? You'd escaped and then you came back. Why did you come back?!" He nearly yelled the last sentence.

"I-I don't… I don't remember anything! I don't know what happened after I went through that thing, I blacked out!" He was terrified; Cutter's gun pointed directly at his heart.

"That's because we took away your memory, Jack. If you don't remember anything, than that means we had our first successful trial. We successfully erased your memory." He lowered his gun. "That's very good thing, because you saw everything… I would've had to kill you if you'd remembered." He smiled for the first time and sat down on Jack's couch.

Abby slowly worked up the courage to clear her head and address Nick. "Cutter?" she paused, swallowing. "I… I don't understand. What's going on?"

"Obviously you know about the anomalies, correct?" She nodded. "Well, we've found a way to open them up from different universes. Only… it has backfired. Some of our people escaped through the anomalies and came here."

"Why?"

"People simply get tired of their lives. Wouldn't you want to know what you're like in another life? People get curious. It was a mistake to let our work be known by so many people…" Obviously he had someone in particular in mind by the look on his face.

"How many people from your time are here?"

"Not including me, Joe and Ben?" Joe and Ben must've been the two soldiers Cutter had brought with him. "Three… that we know of, anyway." He stared at her for a moment. "You're a lot different from the Abby I know. I'm sorry about before, by the way… I honestly thought you were the one I knew; the one I killed a year ago. It didn't really occur to me that we'd actually gotten to an alternate reality yet… I was a bit focused on what your brother knew."

Abby jumped, startled by a sudden knock on the door. As Jack moved to answer the door, one of the two soldiers pointed a gun at him saying, "Don't move!"

"Hey!" cutter yelled at who Abby guessed was Ben. "It's alright, he's not the jack you know… there's no need to point a gun at him. If you're supposed to be almost a complete opposite, which I'm assuming is correct, then you should be like a priest compared to your alternative…" He motioned his head for Jack to go ahead and open the door.

Becker was standing there, panting and sweating, holding Jenny as best he could. He looked like he was going to pass out.

Cutter jumped off the couch and ran straight to him, grabbing Jenny and laying her on the couch. "Claudia." His eyes were compassionate and worried. "My love…" He addressed Becker, "What have you done to her?!"

He tried to catch his breath and was able to huff out, "I… she… she wasn't. Going. To… you know she… wouldn't have come otherwise." He leaned against the wall and slid down to the floor in exhaustion. "Can I get a shower or something? Oh God… I can't feel my legs," he whined.

"Shut up you silly arse," Cutter said, and then he looked back to Jenny. "Why did you have to come here, Claudia? Why did you have to be so daft?"

* * *

Becker was at the ARC, as usual, doing paperwork that Eric had set him to do. He was a special ops soldier, _not_ a receptionist… and yet, Eric has had him doing all this paperwork all day. Lester would have never done that. Becker guessed that Eric wasn't all _that_ bad, he was just… different. And, Becker… well, hated him.

It was like a godsend when Connor walked through the front door of the ARC; Becker would do anything to get away from this paperwork. Connor walked in, a toothpick in his mouth and his hair highlighted with red. Becker came up to him. "Connor. What are you doing here? It's Sunday, you don't come in unless there's an anomaly. And…" he stared at his hair, and then looked at him from head to toe. And then continued, "What are you wearing? And, why'd you highlight your hair?" Connor was wearing a tight black shirt and leather pants.

He looked at Becker, one eyebrow raised. "You don't look a thing like yourself either. Heh… bet you're just as pathetic though." He walked past him, hitting him with his shoulder as he went.

"Connor??" He turned around and stared at him.

"Piss off you pathetic waste." Connor never turned back around to look at him, he just kept walking.

Becker just stared after him, taken aback.

Connor made his way down the hall, stopping dead in his tracks in front of one of the rooms. He stared at Sarah, gazing up and down her body, and then he entered the room.

"Connor," she said with a smile. Then she laughed. "What's up with your hair?"

"Nothing much… do you always ask what's been up with peoples hair?" He smiled cynically. "No, I've got a much more important question: _Why_ am I not in your pants? Damn you're fine."

"What?! Connor, what's wrong with you?!" When he moved closer to her she slapped him on the cheek… _Hard_, then left the room quickly.

He rubbed his throbbing cheek with a sigh. Then he yelled out the door, "Call me!" He laughed and leaned back on the table in the middle of the room.

* * *

Dian woke up at 8am to the smell of flowers, coffee, and a brilliant breakfast. She sat up on the edge of the couch; looking around… the place was clean… _really, really_ clean. It was never this clean. There were roses and candles placed everywhere.

She was gawking when Connor walked in and saw her. She looked at him and smiled.

He smiled back. "Good morning."

She laughed, came up to him and gave him a hug. "Good morning!" Then she looked at him and around the room. "You did this?" He nodded, smiling from ear to ear. "What for?"

"For you, why else?"

She was speechless. All she did was stare at him, looking like she was about to say something, but never did. She grabbed his head and pulled his lips to hers. He didn't even have to ask, or be hesitant, his tongue slipped into her mouth and she happily kissed back perfectly. Their tongues working together. Dian inhaled, "Mmm…" she pulled away from him and said, "Connor Temple… _you_ are going to be the death of me."

He laughed, his gorgeous cheeky smile all-ever present. "Right. I made you breakfast though." Grabbing her arm he sat her at the kitchen table that was full of amazing food.

"Wow, Connor… I knew you could cook but… just wow." She was incredibly hungry. After last night, it's no wonder…

They ate, laughing and talking to each other. Everything was surprisingly easy now… it was like everything got so very simple. But, that was a mistake… nothing in Connor's life was _ever_ simple… never.

His phone rang and he answered it happily, not thinking that it could ruin his plans for the day. He hadn't thought about the ARC at all today, but now it was his main thought… a dreadful thought. It was Danny that called; the ADD had shut down. He was claiming the he had no idea what happened, that he was just trying to pull up some info when it crashed "mysteriously"… Danny must've broken it.

Dian said she would be there later. So, Connor got dressed and left. Dian smiled, fell back on the couch and sighed happily. Closing her eyes, she planned to get a little bit more sleep before going into the ARC to help Connor.

After an hour, Dian came through the front doors of the ARC and walked straight for the break-room to get some coffee… she was going to need it. When she got there, Connor was standing there, about to leave the room. "Hey, Connor… Whoa! _What_ did you do with your hair, and what are you wearing?!" She smiled and laughed.

He simply replied, "Damn!" And gazed slowly down her body and slowly back up, his eyes lingering. "How many hot woman work here??"

"Um… I'll take that as a compliment, I guess." She smiled slightly. "Oh, I forgot to tell you, Connor. Last night was… great." She laughed at herself.

He stared at her blankly for a moment until he came to the conclusion. "We shagged?"

She was taken aback. "Well… God, Connor… Don't put it that way!" she huffed a single, humorless laugh.

"Right…" He thought it was best if he played the game… pretended to be the Connor they knew, at least while he could. "I'm sorry, baby. I meant, made love… and yeah, it was great. You think… we could do it again?" He slipped his hand on the small of her back and pulled her into him.

She laughed humorlessly again. "Uh… this really isn't the place. What has gotten into you? Did you get electrocuted or something?" She frowned, her eye brows arching.

"I just… love you… so much…" He grimaced at his own words, they disgusted him.

"Right." She pulled his arms off from around her waist. "I think it's time to go see the doctor here."

He grabbed her, pushing her up against the counter, one hand on either side of her, holding the counter. "I'm fine. We can play doctor if you want, though." He leaned in and kissed her neck. "Know what? Screw doctor… let's play gynecologist."

"Connor, stop!" She shoved him away. "What the hell is wrong with you?!" Then it clicked… he wasn't Connor. Well, he was, but he must have been from her reality, her timeline… Connor's alternate personally was an ass…

She heard a voice calling from the hallway. "Danny? What did you do to my machine!?" Then her Connor came in the room and saw his alternate self, his eyes widening and he dropped the tool he was carrying.

"Oh crap," exclaimed alternate Connor. He sighed heavily and rolled his eyes.

Jenny started moving on the couch, waking up with a splitting headache. Was she awake? When her vision cleared she knew she was dreaming. "Nick," she whispered, reaching out to touch his face.

"Claudia, my love."

She sat up quickly, frantically. "What?"

"Shh, it's okay. Everything's fine. Claudia… did you find Dian? Is-is she safe?"

She didn't want to tell him the truth… she didn't want to say the she wasn't Claudia Brown. For the first time ever, she wished she _was_ Claudia Brown… she wanted to be with Nick, he was here in front of her, alive and real. But, she wasn't _her_ nick… Still, she couldn't help it. She hugged him tightly, a tear rolling down her face.

"Jenny," Abby said, laying a hand on her shoulder.

"What? What'd you call her?" Cutter asked.

"This isn't Claudia Brown."

He looked at Jenny confused. "What? Is… Is this true?"

She nodded, more tears rolling down and hitting the floor. "My name is Jenny Lewis."

Cutter hung his head then his hands formed into fists and he shoved his gun into Jenny's face. His expression pure anger. "Where is Claudia Brown?"

Her voice came out scared and quite, "Nick…"

They heard Becker moan and curl up into a ball against the wall, because he couldn't stand watching someone die. "I hate blood," he declared in a tiny voiced whisper.

Cutter cocked the gun and repeated, "Where is Claudia Brown!?" he yelled, his finger pulling slightly on the trigger of the gun as she didn't respond.

"Cutter, stop! Don't!" Abby yelled, Joe grabbed her and held her when she tried to grab Cutter's gun.

Jenny couldn't speak, no matter how hard she tried, nothing would come out of her mouth… this could prove fatal.

Abby continued to yell at Cutter to put the gun down, then a loud bang ripped through the air; a gun shot, and a thick silence followed, smoke covering the room…

* * *

**TBC in Chapter 7! I bet your all like :O "WTF??" haha, so, what will happen next? Will Jenny have meet an untimely death? What will happen with the destructive alternate Connor and our Connor? And, what's the story behind this alternate reality? What is the big secret Cutter was willing to kill Jack over?**

**SO MANY QUESTIONS!! :D Please review! Thank you so much for reading, I hope you're enjoying it! :)**


	7. Chapter 7

His dark brown, nearly black, eyes peered through the pitch-black darkness. The cold, damp harshness embraced him as he turned another corner, only this time he saw the end. A lone figure appeared through the entrance of the cave, entering the bright sunlight protesting against the darkness of the cave.

He'd finally made his way out. After coming through his first anomaly, Alex found himself in that cave, cold and alone. When the anomaly closed, leaving him no choice but to continue what he started, he had no idea that he was that far into the cave. It had taken him an hour and a half to find his way through the twists and turns.

He held a hand up to shade his black eyes as the sun gleamed down on him harshly. He seemed to have arrived in the right time, and hopefully the right reality… Alex had only just found out about the anomalies, so he's spent the past 3 months being poked and prodded by the militia gorillas of Area 51.

Nick Cutter, of course, being the main one to interrogate him. He'd found out about the anomalies on accident. Poking around in a government secret run by highly trained military soldiers was _not_ a favorable thing.

Alex managed to escape Area 51 when Nick and his men left to find Claudia. Now he had to find what he was looking for. After 6 years… Cutter would never tell him what had happened to her. Even when Alex never gave up looking for Dian, Cutter still didn't tell him… granted, Cutter hasn't known about the alternate realities for very long either; his point still stood.

He breathlessly made his way to the bottom of the rocky slope, hitting forest floor. Now he was getting hot as the blazing sun sliced out of the cloudless sky. He slipped his shirt off, trying to get some relief from the heat.

Where was he supposed to go now? He had no idea where he was or even where he was supposed to be. Right time, right reality (hopefully), but where was the right location? He let out an exasperated sigh… all he could do now was wander through this forest and try to find people who could help him.

* * *

Connor's eyes never left his alternate self; he just stared, only saying one thing, "What?"

Alternate Connor circled his other self, examining him and his face looked very disappointed. "Ew," he simply exclaimed, stopping in front of his identical. "What am I? I'm like some… punk wanna-be, geek-o-toid… nerd." His face was disgusted. He looked at Dian. "You slept with this?" he said, pointing at his opposite. "What's wrong with you? I mean, I know I've got an extremely attractive face but… really! He's ridiculous!" He laughed.

Real Connor looked at Dian and asked, "So… is this-this is my… parallel universe self?" She nodded. He laughed once and looked at himself. "I look… badass," he said with a slight smile.

"Yeah and you like a pissy little wimp. Seriously, what's wrong with her? How did you get in her pants? Cuz, damn… she's just-"

Real Connor interrupted him, "Hey! That's- be quite."

He was more than a little scared when his alternate self came at him, threatening him. "You want to go, dork?!" He pulled his fisted hand up, threatening Real Connor, who flinched.

"Stop!" Dian grabbed alternate Connor's arm, pulling it away from real Connor.

"Sorry," alternate Connor lowered his arm, surrendering. Or so Dian thought. As soon as she let go of him, he threw a hard punch at her Connor, sending him flying against the wall behind him with a very loud thud.

"Connor!" Dian yelled. She ran over to him, but he was unconscious. "Connor, are you okay? Hey…" she slapped him lightly on the cheek, but got no response. Then she turned on alternate Connor. "You bastard. What's wrong with you? What do you want?"

"All I want is to have a little fun, baby. It's why I came here. It was your idiot father's fault for letting me find out about those anomaly things, _and_ how to work the opener… thingy."

"Is… my dad's here?" She hadn't thought about it. She didn't know that he'd found a way to get to alternate realities.

"Yeah, he came looking for your mum, who'd come looking for you. Blah, blah, blah… who the hell cares? Your dad's an ass anyway."

She slapped him on the face. "Shut up! Where's my dad?!" she grabbed his shirt, threatening him.

He just laughed and smiled. "Whoa, feisty, are we? Ha, I like that." His eyes gazed her hungrily.

She punched him in the gut, causing him to cough in pain. "Where's my dad?" she repeated.

"Jeez! I don't know where he is." He rubbed his stomach as the pain throbbed. "You pack a mean punch… why hasn't your dad ever put you to work at Area 51? You'd probably make a great soldier." He smiled. "A hot one too."

"My dad never told me about Area 51. They work with the anomalies and other government secrets; he didn't want me to have anything to do with it." She thought for a moment and then said, "After all these years that Area 51 has been working on the anomalies, they finally found out how to open anomalies to other realities…"

"Yeah, it's just great isn't it?" he said sarcastically.

"Wait, how do you know my dad?" she asked.

"I've had my suspicions about Area 51 for years. I tried many, many times to break in and steal the future technology they'd gotten from the anomalies. Your dad, being their top soldier, was always the one to arrest me… torture me." He smiled maliciously. "Your dad enjoys a good torture, you know. You shoulda seen the look of pleasure and happiness on his face when he gave me these." He pulled up the sleeve of his shirt, revealing a series of large scars that sliced short ways down his arm.

Dian shook her head. "No… he doesn't enjoy that. He was just doing his job," she defended her father.

"Yeah, well he got pretty crafty for just doing his job, now didn't he!?" He shook his head stiffly. "Stop trying to convince yourself that your daddy's as great as you always wanted him to be. He's a cold hearted bastard soldier… and you and your mum are the only things that can melt that iced heart of his." A thought struck him. "So, maybe it's time to teach soldier boy a lesson, eh?"

"What do mean?"

Another smile spread across his face. "I apologize for any inconvenience this may have on the rest of your day…" He pulled out a gun, holding it to her shoulder and pulled the trigger. Her scream of agony pierced the air. "Lovely," he stated, smiling cynically.

* * *

Abby stared through the smoke, seeking desperately to be able to see anything. The smoke cleared slowly and she started to see a lone figure lying on the ground, obviously bleeding. She didn't move, she just waited, holding her breath, until she could make out who it was on the ground.

It was exactly as she feared. Jenny was lying, bleeding, on the ground. "Jenny!" She pulled free of Joe's grip and ran to her, putting her hand on the gun wound. "Jenny?" she said frantically, tears welling up in her eyes. But, she could feel a pulse in her neck; Jenny was still alive. She hadn't been shot where Cutter was pointing; she was shot in shoulder, too close to the heart for Abby to be comforted.

But, it was obvious that Cutter hadn't been the one to shoot her. So who had? Abby heard a gun cock behind her. She turned slowly to see Ben holding the gun to her head. "I knew you didn't have the guts to kill her, Cutter. I did you a favor. You know our orders; do whatever it takes to get Claudia Brown, Dian Brown, and Connor Temple back to Area 51. They know everything about us."

Cutter was standing there, staring at Jenny, his heart beating fast as he looked at her dying on the floor. She looked flawlessly like his Claudia; how could he have shot her? Ben was right that he wouldn't have done it, and he wasn't about to let Ben finish her off.

As quick as a flash of light, Nick snapped out of his shocked trance and pulled back the trigger of his gun, making a direct shot into Ben's skull. And, his eyes rolling back into his head, Ben fell onto the floor… dead.

Abby couldn't breathe; she couldn't even move her head to look at Cutter. She half expected him to shoot her too. She'd never watched someone get shot in the head before…

"Abby?" Cutter said. He sighed and then looked at Joe, pointing his gun at him. "Tell me now, Joseph Bentley… whose side are you on? Will you help me find my wife and daughter, and allow me to take them safely back to our reality? Or do I need to get rid of you and your loyalty to Area 51 as well?" He stared at him with cold blue eyes. "Choose, Bentley," he demanded.

He thought for a moment, Cutter expected him to keep his loyalty to the government. But, surprisingly, he responded to Cutter's question by putting his hand up to his forehead and saluting him. "I'm with you sir, as I always have been."

Cutter looked at him for a moment, and then lowered his gun. "Good man." He turned quickly to Jenny. "Bentley, call an ambulance!" He nodded and grabbed his phone, obeying Cutter's orders. Cutter bent down next to Jenny and started wrapping her wound.

Abby finally found the strength to move. "Is she going to be alright, Cutter?" she asked in a small voice.

He only glanced at her. "I think… I don't know. She's lost a lot of blood and this wound could easily get infected. I really don't know if she's going to be alright, honestly."

"The ambulance is on its way, sir," Joe informed him.

Becker finally rustled from his fetal position and looked over at them, immediately spotting Ben's dead body. "Oh… that's…" his eyes rolled back and he fainted, hitting the floor.

* * *

He heard a faint, clouded whistling in the background of his mind. It became louder and louder as he regained his consciousness. Connor opened his eyes, feeling the worst pain he'd ever felt in his life, shooting through his arms. He looked up at his hands; they were hanging from the ceiling above his head, criss-crossed over each other, making the chain dig deep into his wrists and cut off the blood circulation.

The whistling stopped as Connor's double saw him conscious. "Ah, finally. I thought I might have killed you." He chuckled darkly. "Now, let's see what pushes my alternate self to his limits." His evil smile sent a painful shiver down Connor's spine. Alternate Connor pulled out a hunting knife and glared. "By the way, so we can avoid any confusion in the future, or… well, if you have a future, that is; you can call me C." He laughed. "Alright, let's get down to business." He flipped the knife in his hand and walked up to Connor…

"Stop! Stop! Please, Stop!" Dian pleaded weakly.

C. let out a low growl before turning to Dian. "Aw… you look like hell. I'm glad you're awake… now you can watch yer boyfriend scream in agony as I slice him to pieces."

"Stop… leave him alone. If you touch him… I swear-"

"What? You'll sick your father on me? Eh?! You know what? He already did that! He already had his fun with me! Cutting me flesh until I couldn't feel anything at all; until I was practically dead already!" His eyes blazed with heated anger. "No… your right… _you_ should be the one to get sliced. But, I figure it'll hurt you more to watch the one you love being tortured. And then, your father can watch you have the same thing done.

So sit back… and enjoy the show." He twitched a smile and turned back to Connor with the knife. Connor's breathing increased and his heart was thudding out of his chest. He whined as the knife came closer to him.

* * *

Alex hit the hardwood floor of an old restaurant, his sweat hitting the floor in droplets. Panting, he forced himself to climb to the counter.

"You alright, mate?" asked the waiter behind the counter of the dumpy restaurant that was located in the middle of nowhere.

"Water," he managed to huff out. As soon as a glass of water was set on the counter, he swallowed it in nearly one gulp.

"You want me to call the hospital, mate? You look terrible."

Alex shook his head. "No… I'm fine. Just… get me another water." The waiter nodded and started filling up another glass. "You wouldn't happen to know a Dian Brown, would you?" he asked hopefully.

"No, sorry."

He tried again. "Claudia Brown? Nick Cutter? Joe Bentley? Any of these ring a bell?"

"Wait, now… Nick Cutter, that… that sounds familiar. Yeah, yeah, he was down here a few days ago, looking for a Claudia Brown too."

"Did he say where he was heading?"

"I think… I think he said something about heading to London."

"Right… uh… where am I right now?"

The waiter gave him a weird look, but answered anyway. "Sydney." Alex gave him a blank stare as if he didn't know what that meant. "Sydney… Australia. You sure you're alright, mate?"

He nodded slowly, drinking his water. Well… he was in the right time… the right reality, but _defiantly_ not the right location…

* * *

**TBC in Chapter 8! Oh, the questions... the questions. There are so many, aren't there? Well, in Chapter 8 we will find out much! One thing I KNOW you're wondering- AREA 51?! haha, yes, the famous Area 51... if Connor wasn't about to be killed by himself, he would be having a hay-day with that! ;)**

**Please Review! Thank you so much for reading, I hope you're enjoying it! :)**


	8. Chapter 8

**Please let me know what you think about this Chapter! :)**

* * *

"Quinn!!" Eric's furious yell sounded halfway through the ARC. When he found Danny, he came straight to him, yelling. "Where is the rest of your team, Quinn?! We were alerted about the new anomaly half an hour ago!"

Danny's face was annoyed, but he composed himself before turning to address Kingswood, putting on a fake, almost secretly mocking, smile. "I've been trying to get a hold of them, but I've got no idea where they are. They aren't picking up their cell phones or anything. I think-"

"I don't care what you think, Quinn. Just take Becker, Sarah and a few of our soldiers, and go find that anomaly!" His fury wasn't new to Danny. But, Eric wasn't always like this; the job had really been getting to him. It seemed that he'd gotten very stressed, very easily.

Although Danny, along with almost everyone else at the ARC, didn't like Eric Kingswood… they had to hand it to him; he did a hell of a job keeping people in line. Productivity had increased since he'd taken over, however, happiness in the workplace had decreased. Everyone was working more hours and doing much more while they worked.

Danny thought that Eric was trying to prove something to someone. Possibly gunning for a permanent job… Lester's job, permanently. Would the minister allow that?

He snapped out of his thoughts and started rounding up the team, or what was left of it, anyway. Where were Abby, Connor, and Dian?

He'd have to think about it later. "Becker! Sarah! Come on, we're leaving without them!" he called. They gathered their things and headed to the location on the A.D.D.

* * *

"RAAAHHHH!!" Connor's scream shook through the entire building. The knife running straight down, horizontally, across his bare chest. Dian couldn't watch anymore, this had been going on for half an hour. She could close her eyes, but she couldn't stop herself from hearing Connor's shrieks of agony as the knife ripped through his flesh, leaving blood dripping to the floor.

"Have we had enough?" said C., holding the blood soaked knife in his hand. He looked over at Dian, smiling. "Oh… now, come on! You're supposed to be watching!" She cringed when he ran up to her. "What's left now, daddy's girl? Hmm? What do you have left to hold onto? If I'm doing this to your boyfriend, what do you think I'm going to do to your dad? HAHA!" He clapped his hands together, eagerly. "Right… I think it's time for something new." He disappeared into another room to get something.

Dian stared at Connor, his arms cut more times than she could count. His blood was dripping onto the cold floor. Two long cuts formed an X from shoulder to hip, across his chest and torso. The wrists of his hands draining more blood from his body as the chains dug, deeper and deeper, into his veins.

"Connor," she said in a small whisper. Tears welled up in her eyes and dripped to the floor. She'd tried to help him, but all she'd done was make her own pain worse by digging the chains deeper into her wrists. There was no escaping this torture.

"Connor… you're going to be alright," she said, trying to sound convincing. "We're going to get out of here… I promise."

He was barely able to lift his head to look at her, but he did. "Dian… I can't-" he was too weak to finish.

"Just… hold on, Connor. Don't let go; keep fighting, I promise I'll get you out of here."

"Whoa!" C. said as he came back in the room. "Don't go making promises you can't keep." He came up to her, straight up to her face. "Empty promises… perfectly pointless… Lies." He winked at her and turned around to Connor, going around to the back of him, a small welding flamer in his hand. "Do we like fire?" he asked an almost unconscious Connor. He pulled the knob, fire flaming out. "This should wake you up." He smiled and put the tip of the flame on his shoulder blade earning a piercing scream from Connor.

Dian gritted her teeth, preparing to do the most painful thing she'd ever done… but she had to, if she even could. She clamped her jaw down, making sure she couldn't scream. She had to do this while C. was distracted.

Much less than ready, but as ready as she would ever be, Dian pulled her arms downwards, twisting her hands, trying desperately to release her hands from the chains. She felt a scream welling in her throat as the pain ripped through her body, she only barely resisted.

After a few minutes, the pain finally paid off, but wasn't over. She felt the chains finally release her hands, taking along with them a lot of her skin and blood. At this, she couldn't stop herself from yelling at the unbelievable pain. But, she was free, dropped down to the floor, hands bleeding and raw.

C. heard her scream and was shocked to find her free of the chains. "Oi!" He left Connor, going straight to her. She wasn't about to let this moment go to waste. Putting every inch of anger and pain into her power, she punch him straight in the face, hearing his nose crunch beneath her fist and blood splatter as his nose broke. He was out like a light.

She didn't know how she'd done it… but she had. A grin spread across her face and she looked at Connor, but he wasn't here to celebrate; he had left all conscience. "Connor?" She ran to him, feeling his neck for a pulse; and she found it. She sighed with relief, and then quickly unchained his hands, helping him easily down to the floor. Before she could take care of his wounds, she had to do something with C.

* * *

Hitchhiking in Australia was the absolute _worst _thing ever. There were hardly any cars… no, make that _no_ cars. If it wasn't for the water he'd brought with him, he'd be dead by now. "Dammit!" Alex cursed out loud as another hour went by, no sign of civilization. The only thing he could see was a whole lot of desert.

Then he spotted something in the distance that he knew shouldn't have been there… a shining light, floating in the air. His face lit up when he realised it was an anomaly. Running to it, he paused in front of the shining object. Should he go through it?

He didn't have time to decide. There was a rumble on the other side of the anomaly, and Alex ran back, hiding behind the nearest rock. The sound got closer and closer until he saw the light flicker and a creature step through. Lucky for Alex, it was only a Hyracotherium; one of the horses ancestors, only they didn't have hooves back then; they had toes. 4 toes on their front feet and 3 on their back. It was smaller than a human, no more than 24 inches in length. These dated back to the Tertiary period, about 50 million years ago.

This creature posed absolutely no threat to Alex. But, what unexpectedly jumped out of the anomaly, mauling the Hyracotherium, did pose a major threat.

It was a Andrewsarchus, a very large mammal with sharp, hoof-like claws. It was a giant creature; about 19 feet long. It came from the Tertiary as well, and it was obviously hungry. It mauled the Hyracotherium, biting at its neck to kill it.

Alex thought he might be able to escape while it ate, but he couldn't just leave and let the creature stay here. He had to get it back through the anomaly…. Somehow.

Then a noise sounded behind him; one he hadn't heard in a while… it was the sound of a car coming down the desert road. "Oh, now there's a car," Alex whispered to himself.

The Andrewsarchus immediately jerked it's head up from the prey as the car drove nearer. Letting out a low growl, it quickly jumped back through the anomaly, deciding that he was no match for the large metal abnormality.

The car pulled over, the passengers staring, wide-eyed at the anomaly. "What the hell was that?" the Australian driver asked.

"Uh… long story, mate. I-I wouldn't even know where to begin," Alex replied as best he could.

"Good onya, mate. Where you heading off to?" It was a young woman in the passenger's seat that had addressed him.

"London, actually…"

"Oh, I thought I heard an English accent!" stated the driver. "Well, we can give ya a lift to the airport if ya'd like."

"Or, if you've got a bit of time to spare, you can come with us to the Barbie. We were heading there now. Lots of good eaten… and you look like you could use it," the girl offered.

He thought about it for a moment; he hadn't eaten since the night before last. But, he had a one-track mind most of the time, and now was the time to use that… he needed to find Dian, he had to keep on the mission. "No… no, I'm-I'm… fine. But, yes, thank you; I would love a ride to the air port."

"You got it, mate; hop in." The driver indicated to the bed of the jeep. As Alex climbed in, the driver introduced everyone. "I'm Felix, this sheila here is Cayenne." She waved happily at Alex. "That's Riley, and that's Rizzor." He pointed to the two men in the back seats; they were obviously twin brothers.

Alex nodded at everyone. "Nice to meet you all."

"Cayenne, darling, could you get the man an apple or something; looks like he hasn't eaten in days."

"Sure thing," she said happily. She grabbed an apple from a basket in her floor board and handed it to Alex.

"Thank you." He gratefully took the apple and bit into it, Cayenne blushing a little as his hand touched hers when he took the apple from her.

After a minute of driving, Felix asked, "So, what's your name, mate? We didn't catch it."

He swallowed another bite of apple and answered, "Alex… Alex Winchester."

"Ah, me mam's last name was Winchester."

"Really? What's yours?"

"O'lachlan. Me father was pure Australian, he was. I'm proud to have his name; keeping the legacy alive. Cayenne's proud to have the name as well, aren't you darling?"

"Of course I am, dad."

"Right. Well, why are you heading to London, Alex?"

"To find a friend."

"Oh? Would this friend happen to be more than a friend?" Felix smiled.

"Uh… well, that's a bit personal."

"'Course, sorry… it's none of me business."

"Dad's always poking around where he shouldn't be," Cayenne stated, blushing a little.

* * *

Jenny was taken directly to the hospital, where everyone was waiting to hear the Doctor's diagnoses. Jack had had enough of this madness and stayed behind, probably trying to get rid of Ben's dead body, really.

Cutter paced back and forth, up and down the hallway of the hospital. He didn't even know Jenny… why was he worried about what happened to her? He should be looking for Claudia or Dian.

"Cutter?" Abby called to him, making him stop pacing.

"Yes?" he replied.

"What is it Jack saw in your world? I mean, not that you have to tell me the secret… just, what is it he saw?" She was careful not to upset Cutter.

"He saw our government secrets. All of our secrets at Area 51."

Her eyes widened. "Wha-what?" She laughed. "I'm sorry, did you just say _Area 51_?"

Cutter nodded. "Yes, that's where I work. We research the anomalies, as well as other secrets… ones that I'm not authorized to tell you about."

"Like… aliens?" She said in a quiet voice.

He gave her a look. "Aliens?? No… not like aliens." He paused for a moment, eyeing her. "Are you mental or something?"

She looked at the floor. "No, it's just… here, area 51 is supposed to be like a government run extraterrestrial research base or something… aliens."

"You people are a bit daft, aren't you?"

Abby sighed and continued to stare at the floor.

The Doctor came out of Jenny's room, her chart in his hands. "Well, she's going to be alright; that's the good news. The bad news is… she's going to have to have heart surgery. But, she should be okay; it's not that serious. Her heart just got a graze, but it happens a lot with bullet injuries. Most people survive it." The doctor smiled. He called that good news? What a load of crap…

"Right. Can I see her?" Cutter asked.

"We'd like to do the surgery as soon as possible. It'd be best if you didn't. I just need you to sign this and fill out some information before we get started. You are family, right?"

He thought for a moment. "Yes… she's my wife." The doctor smiled again and handed him some papers.

Abby heard the front doors of the hospital open and a familiar voice yelling, "Help! Someone, please!" She jerked her head and saw Dian carrying what looked like Connor, only… he was cut and burned, the sight sent fear directly to her core.

As the doctors grabbed Connor from her and took him quickly into one of the hospital rooms, Abby ran up to Dian. "Dian! What happened? What are you doing here?"

Tears were rolling from her eyes. "Abby… I'm so sorry. I tried to do everything I could to help him. I don't know if he's going to make it… I couldn't feel his breathing anymore, Abby." Tears ran uncontrollably down her face and she leaned into Abby, hugging her. Abby comforted her, her own shock too unbearable for her to speak.

She could hear the doctors yelling at each other as they tried to revive Connor from his death. She could hear them doing CPR, and shocking his heart, trying to bring him back. She couldn't lose him… not now… not ever. Abby couldn't live without Connor… she loved him.

* * *

Danny, Becker and Sarah, along with two other ARC soldiers, found themselves face-to-face with Baryonyx that had come through the anomaly. It was huge… nearly 31 feet long, weighing about 2tons. And, at the look of its 12 inch long claw, it wasn't friendly. Its jaws looked like they could snap any of them in half with ease.

And, they had to get it back through the anomaly… great. Where were Connor, Abby, and Dian when they needed them? Danny was sure that Dian could use that pole thingy to paralyze the creature. How were they going to get it through the anomaly?

They had to think of something fast; it was heading straight for them… and they were at an airport; if they didn't do something quickly, the whole place could become dino food.

Airport… means airplanes… Danny smiled. He snuck away from the others, heading for the nearest plane he could find.

"Danny, what's the plan here?" Becker asked, his gun pointed at the creature. "Danny?" He looked back to find Danny gone. "What?" Then he heard one of the airplanes start driving across the runway, coming straight for the Baryonyx. "What the hell is he doing?!" He was driving the creature right for the airport, instead of away from it. All he was going to do was cause the creature to break through the building… this was bad.

"Danny! Stop!" Sarah yelled, trying to get him to hear over the plane's noise. But he could even see her, much less hear her. "What do we do?" she asked Becker.

He thought quickly. "We shoot the tires on the airplane and hope like hell it doesn't crash into the building itself…" He pointed his gun and fired before Sarah could speak. He aimed perfectly and the front and back wheels of the plane, deflating them and causing the plane to screech and spin around in a circle… heading exactly where Becker didn't want it to. "Oh shit… bad idea."

Becker ran into the airport, yelling for everyone to evacuate the building as quick as possible. They didn't obey him until they spotted the plane that was swerving out of control and about to crash into the building.

Everyone panicked, running and screaming out the building.

"Becker, you complete idiot!" Sarah yelled at him. She didn't realise until now that they had gotten in the path of the plane, it was a few inches away from squashing them when Becker threw them both into the anomaly, the plane sliding over the anomaly and it scratched where they would have been.

Becker and Sarah landing on the dusty dirt of the past, they saw a flicker of light...the anomaly closed, leaving a Baryonyx in the present and them in the past… Sarah stared at where the anomaly was and stated to Becker, "I hate you."

* * *

**TBC in Chapter... oh I think you can do the math... ;) **

**Please review! And don't hate me for Connor's (sort of) demise!**

**Thank you for reading! :)**


	9. Chapter 9

They'd been sitting there for an hour under this stupid tree… waiting. Waiting for what? The anomaly wasn't going to open again. But, Becker refused to move, and Sarah couldn't just leave him.

The least she could do in the mean time was clean the cut he'd gotten from jumping onto the dirt floor of this forest. She rolled her eyes. "Let me take care of that cut for you," she said, leaning over to get at his ribs, where the cut was. But, when she tried to help him, he pushed her away.

"No, I'm fine. Stop," he protested.

"Becker. It's going to get infected if you don't let me clean it out." He took his eyes off the spot where the anomaly had disappeared for the first time since it'd gone. Looking at her, he thought about it for a moment. It was a scratch… no big deal. He continued to stare at her, annoyed. "Alright, fine! I'll leave it alone, just stop staring at me!" she said, sitting back down next to him.

He immediately looked back at the empty spot. Sarah sighed. It was getting dark, and they needed to find shelter. All they had with them was her bag full of a few medical aid things, some personal items, a handkerchief, some aspirin, and a few snacks… they wouldn't last too very long on that.

She got tired of sitting there, waiting for nothing. She stood up, brushing herself off. "I'm going to find shelter. It's obvious that we are not going to get out of here tonight." She waited to see what he would say, but he just glanced at her for a split second and then went back to staring. She sighed again. "You could come help, you know."

"I'm not leaving this spot," he said stubbornly.

"Fine," she retorted stiffly. Then she walked away, searching for a make-shift shelter.

* * *

Abby couldn't stand the sound of the continuing "Clear!" and then the loud thud of shocking Connor's body that she heard from the hospital room, as the doctors tried to bring him back to life. She didn't know what to think, or what to do… had she really just lost Connor forever?

Everything was spinning. She leaned against the wall, sliding down onto the floor; too shocked to even cry.

Dian was past any shock, she was lying against the wall, tears rolling endlessly down to the floor as Connor's screams of pain ran through her head, over and over and over again. When a doctor came up to her, trying to look at her bleeding hands, she didn't move… didn't even blink, even when the pain shocked through her system as the doctor put a wrap around both the hands and wrists.

Abby heard yet another thud, indicating more shocks being sent through Connor's non-beating heart. She closed her eyes tight, wishing, praying, that he'd come back to her. "Connor," she whispered, a tear sliding out her eye. "I love you." Her lower jaw quivered as the pain and depression set in.

"I've got a pulse!" one of the doctors's yelled from Connor's room. Then Abby heard a bunch of bustling, as they tried to stabilize him.

Abby's eyes widened and she craned her neck to look into the room they'd taken Connor into. She could see him lying on the hospital bed, all those doctors and nurses surrounding him. She just waited it out; not wanting to get hopes up, in case his shallow pulse was only a fluke.

After a few minutes, most of the nurses and doctors evacuated Connor's room; one of the doctors coming to Abby with the result. She slowly stood up. "He's alive," the doctor stated with a solemn face. "But… I'm afraid the loss of blood and extreme trauma he has suffered…" the doctor paused. "It's caused him to slip into a coma. One he may not wake up from. His heart may be beating, but I'm afraid he's not really alive… for the most part. His brain has sort of shut down. There's not much we can do but wait… I'm sorry." She left Abby to contemplate the news.

She had to force herself to enter the room. Closing the door behind her, Abby walked ever so slowly up to the bed in which Connor lay. More tears welling up in her eyes as she saw him deeply unconscious and cut more times than she could count. "What happened to you, Connor?" she whispered. She let her grief go, putting one arm around him and digging her head into his shoulder, sobbing uncontrollably.

Dian couldn't make herself go into the room… she just couldn't. All she did was stand there, staring at the door, wishing none of this had ever happened… or at the very least, that it was _her_ who'd had this happen to. Connor didn't deserve this… she should have done something sooner… something, _anything._

She had to see him, though. Slowly, she turned the knob on the door and opened it. She expected Abby to be there, but she didn't expect to hear the words that came out of her mouth. "I love you, Connor," she had whispered, even though she knew he couldn't hear her.

The words struck Dian, hard. She thought she'd seen something between them. Connor had insisted that Abby didn't like him, but… she obviously didn't mean she loved him as a friend. Her heart broke; she just closed the door and sat down in the hallway on the waiting bench.

She was so stupid… she knew very well that she shouldn't have created any sort of relationship with anyone here. But she had, and now she was paying for it. She tried to hold it back, but failed; a tear rolled down her cheek.

"Dian?" came an eager, shocked voice.

She looked up and saw her Cutter. "Dad!" She jumped up and hugged him.

He sighed with relief. "I thought you were dead, Dian. Six years…" He hugged her tighter.

She narrowed her eyebrows and pulled away from him. "Wait." She remembered what C. had said. "Dad…" she didn't know where to start. "Why didn't you tell me about Area 51?"

"What?" he was shocked she knew about it at all. "How did you find out about that?"

"Becker," she reluctantly said. Becker and her were always good mates, and he'd accidently let it slip out about Area 51. He didn't like lying, so he told her that Cutter worked there and that they worked with the anomalies.

"That idiot." Cutter's face turned angry.

"No. It's not his fault. Why didn't _you_ tell me? Government secret or not, you could have brought me into it. I could've helped-"

"No! I didn't want you to have anything to do with it. You don't understand…" he took a deep breath. "It's not an ideal place to work, Dian. They aren't exactly… honest. The government bends their own rules… they've done things that even I am ashamed of. Area 51 is somewhere I would rather not work at… but I'm a soldier… I can't just leave."

She understood… but she couldn't believe that her father would do what he'd done to C., she didn't know he had that in him. "You know… it's your fault for what's happened to this Connor…" she said in a small voice.

"What? Dian, who did this to you two?" He looked at her hands.

"The Connor that you'd tortured. The one from our world."

He burned with anger again. "Of course. Well, don't worry… I'll take care of him for good."

"No!" She backed away from him. "Don't you see; that's what got us into this! The Nick I know would never do that! You don't torture people… you don't "take care" of people!" She paused, shaking her head at him. "Maybe I don't know you at all…"

"Dian! Come back!" he yelled after her as she walked away from him. He sighed and looked at the floor.

* * *

He couldn't remember what had happened. He woke up, his head thudding with pain from where he'd hit it as the plane crashed into the airport. Danny made his way out of the plane.

He felt the debris crunch beneath his shoes as he touch the ground. He looked about, seeing the destruction he'd caused. But, worse than that, he heard a roar from outside, indicating the Baryonyx was still here. Danny's memory slowly came back to him; he'd tried to put the creature back through the anomaly, but he wasn't able to steer the plane… the gears had stuck and he was heading for the airport. He'd tried to stop the plane, but then Becker shot out the tires, causing the plane to spin directly into the building.

And now here he was… the anomaly was closed and Becker and Sarah were nowhere to be seen. All he had was the two ARC soldiers they'd brought with them. He spotted the two men and ran up to them; careful to avoid the Baryonyx.

"Oi, you two got enough ammo to bring that thing down?" They didn't have any other choice but to kill the creature before it killed a person… or twenty.

The soldiers looked at each other and then nodded at Danny. "Good," he replied. "Well… suppose it's now or never. Fire at will, boys."

The soldiers nodded their acceptance of the task and ran out, firing their guns at the large prehistoric creature. They could see blood splattering as the bullets wounded the Baryonyx. It kept backing away; roaring in pain until it got a few bullets in the face… it fell to the ground, dying.

Danny flinched as the creature let out a last, mournful, whine… he regretted having to kill it. But, what other choice was there? It was over now, anyway; there was no going back. "Now we just have to get rid of a 19ft long dinosaur that's lying in the middle of an airport runway," Danny said tiredly.

"Sir," one of the soldiers called to him. "Should we report back to the ARC, sir?"

"Yeah, tell them we're gonna need a very, very large net and a helicopter…"

"Yes sir," the man replied, getting out his phone and contacting the ARC.

Needless to say, Eric wasn't happy about their outcome at all. Danny was just glad it wasn't him that Eric was yelling at… yet. He knew the Eric was going to be _so_ pissed…

* * *

Alex had arrived at the airport but, upon realizing he had no money, Felix offered to take him to his house and let him work for a payment. So, Alex spent the night in their shed… a horribly uncomfortable shed. He had no idea what he'd gotten himself into when he'd agreed to work for Felix for a while. Felix was an oyster farmer… that seemed simple enough; but it was far from simple. How the hell did oysters need so much care and maintenance? Even the slightest thing could set them off and make them un-harvestable.

It was the longest day of Alex's life. He worked as hard as he could; harvesting the oysters and cleaning up the decks and boats. He was making a decent amount of pay though… enough to get him to London after two days of working.

By the time the first day was over, he didn't know if he could possibly go through another day of that torture. He smelled like dirty fish and sweat, he had cuts all over his hands, and he'd fallen out of the boat one too many times… he was tired and hungry and wanted to take a shower.

Fortunately for him, it had been worthwhile; he'd gotten a good home cooked meal and his first payment, along with a nice, cool shower.

He got out of the shower, a towel around his waist, and walked out into the hallway to go get his clothes. He nearly ran into Cayenne on his way. "Whoa, sorry." He laughed.

She turned dark red at the sight of him half-naked. "It's okay." She giggled a little, eyeing his finely toned muscles.

He looked away awkwardly, trying to pretend he didn't notice her staring at him. "Um… I was just," he pointed to the door behind her, indicating that he needed to get by.

"Oh, right… sorry." She moved out of the way, blushing more.

When Alex came out of the room with some clothes, he suddenly felt dizzy; almost falling over, when Cayenne caught him. "Are you alright?" she asked worriedly.

He could have sworn he saw a flash behind his eyes… a picture of something. Was he going crazy? He regained balance, trying to hide the fear he felt about his own health. "I'm… I'm fine. Uh… I think I just need to get some sleep, that's all." He knew that wasn't it, but what was he going to tell her? That he thought he was going mental?

Lately this had been happening, and he started realizing that he couldn't remember certain things… things that had happened to him while he was at Area 51. Maybe this was him slowly regaining what he couldn't remember?

He walked past Cayenne and back to the bathroom, getting dressed. After he'd slipped on his clean clothes, he sat on the edge of the tub for a moment, thinking. Then he felt a sharp pain that pierced his skull, sending his hand instinctively against his head. He groaned in pain, shutting his eyes at the agony.

Then he saw it; a picture in his subconscious mind, showing behind his eyelids. It was like watching a movie with his eyes closed; he saw flashes of light, and faces of people he had never seen before; people in doctor's masks, but they weren't doctors. He saw them with tools, and he as they drilled and scraped, he could hear his own screaming… this had happened to him, but when? And why couldn't he remember it before?

But, more importantly… why was he _seeing_ it rather than just remembering it? What had they done to him?

When the pictures stopped, his eyes flew open and his breathing was shallow, a sheen of sweat covering him as his heart raced from the pain and shock. He looked at himself in the mirror, seeing his eyes change from a white, back to his normal black color… he most defiantly had to be going mental.

He jumped at the sound of a knock on the bathroom door. "Are you okay, Alex?" said Cayenne, her voice more worried than before. "I heard you screaming."

He tried to catch his breath, before he spoke. "Yeah, I'm okay, I just… stubbed my toe," he lied badly.

"I'm coming in," she warned, opening the door and stepping inside. "Oh… you look terrible!" she exclaimed. Coming over to him, she put one hand on his forehead, feeling for a temp. "You're burning up, Alex… I think you should see a doctor." Her eyes were genuinely worried.

"No, I'll be fine," he reassured her, grabbing her hand in his. "I just need some sleep, honest." He tried to smile; only barely managing.

Her face looked skeptical, but she nodded and helped him stand up. After she guided him back to the shed, before leaving him, she asked, "Are you _sure_ you don't need a doctor?"

"Cayenne… I'm absolutely sure that I don't need a doctor." He smiled at her with his perfect teeth.

She smiled back, a little bit more sure that he was okay. She nodded. "Okay, I'll see you tomorrow then, eh?"

"Yeah; one more day of work and I'll have enough money to go to back to London."

Her smile faltered, fading a bit at the thought of him leaving. "Yeah," she tried to sound happy. "Then you can go find your mate… Okay, I'll see you tomorrow then." She waved goodbye and shut the shed door behind her.

* * *

After finding a spot in between two nearby trees, Sarah created a make-shift shelter that should last them the night… as long as it didn't rain. Now all she had to do was convince Becker to leave that spot and take shelter for the night so he wouldn't get eaten by some creature.

"Becker it's time-"

"SH!" he hushed her fiercely.

She was taken aback. "What?" she said in disbelief.

He got up, pushing her behind him. "Stay back," he said in a whisper, his eyes locked onto something in the dark that Sarah couldn't see. Becker pointed his gun at whatever it was he saw and said, "Come out, now." His voice was demanding and confident.

A young man, no more than 16 years old, came out from behind a tree with his hands in the air. "Don't shoot," he said; his voice a smooth American accent.

"Who are you?" Becker didn't lower his gun.

"Can you put the gun down?"

"Just answer the question."

"Mike Johnson. _Now_ can you lower the gun?" Becker lowered his gun and turned on his flashlight, shining it in Mike's face. He had short blond hair, bright green eyes, and didn't really look less than 18.

"How old are you, mate?"

"Uh… 16," he said, holding his hand in front of his face, blocking the light from his eyes.

He didn't look 16… he was tall and skinny, but fairly muscular for someone so young. Although he was only a little muscular, Becker guessed he was another computer geek and the only reason for the muscles was that he'd been stuck here in the past for a while. "How long have you been here, Mike?"

"Here in the Cretaceous? Um… 5 weeks I think. But there must have been another Diablo Orbe if you two are here."

"A what?"

"Devil's Orb… It sounded better in Spanish, so that's what I call those floating lights…"

"Right. We just call them anomalies."

The kid moved his head in a way that reminded Becker of Connor… a lot like Connor. That's who this kid reminded him of. It was strange… he even resembled him a bit.

"Why don't you come with us, Mike," Sarah said sweetly. "We can take care of you; get these scratches taken care of and give you some shelter."

He thought about it for a minute. "What shelter do you have?" he asked.

"Uh… it's over here." She brought him over to the small, crappy shelter.

He barked out a laugh, obviously finding the pathetic shelter hilarious. "Right… that's not going to help anyone. You guys can come with _me_ and _I'll _take care of _you_." He laughed again as he started walking in the opposite direction. Sarah and Becker exchanged glances and then followed Mike.

He brought them to a large cabin that was decked out with all sorts of contraptions to keep creatures out. "Welcome to casa de Mike." He smiled wide, watching their impressed faces.

* * *

**TBC in (obviously) Chapter 10!**

**Please review, and yes... mourn for Connor and his now unconcious brain. :(**

**Thank you so much for reading!**


	10. Chapter 10

Abby practically refused to ever leave Connor's hospital room. She'd pulled up a chair next to his bed and slept, when she woke up she'd almost thought that all this had been a dream… until she looked at Connor's unconscious, sleeping, body; and the pain came back to her, just as strong, if not stronger, than before.

She couldn't cry anymore, though. All she could do is stay with him and hope he comes out of the coma… and _when_ he does, she would tell him how she felt, once and for all. No more holding back, no more protecting herself from the possible bad outcomes, and certainly no more pushing Connor away.

She slipped her fingers in between Connor's, holding his hand, hoping that somehow he could feel it, and somehow he could know that she needed him to be okay. She heard the door open and looked around to see Dian standing in the doorway. Abby wanted to know what had happened, but anytime she asked Dian, all she did was walk away as if it was too horrible for her to even think about.

"Dian? You okay?"

"Yeah," she said cautiously. "Um… can I have a moment alone with Connor?"

"Oh, yeah, of course." Abby reluctantly let go of his hand and slowly left the room, shutting the door on her way out. At least this would give her a chance to grab something to eat from one of the vending machines.

Dian had avoided coming to see Connor for as long as she could, but she couldn't stop herself from coming in here to see his condition for herself. She ran a hand down the long white bandage on his chest, where the knife cut was. Even though he had a wrapping on the burn wound, she could see a little of the blistered skin on his shoulder and that made her wince. The cuts on his arms were bandaged, and she could see blood that soaked through the fabric of the bandage.

Exhaling deeply, Dian sat down in the chair next to the bed and held Connor's hand, wincing a little at the pain from her raw hands, and her shoulder was still sore from when C. had shot her… she was lucky that he'd only shot her with a tranquilizer gun, where he'd gotten it, she had no idea. But, she pushed the thought away, turning full attention to Connor's unconscious body. "Connor, I promise I'll help you wake up. I'll do whatever I can," she said. "I think… I think I'm going to make you this promise; I'm gonna find a way to get you out of the coma, and then I'm going leave… I'm going to go back with my dad to my time, as I know I should. You can be with Abby and she can take care of you." She laughed once. "She loves you, ya know. I think you'll know that when you wake up; she'll tell you, I'm sure of it." This was obviously a good thing for him, but hurt Dian very much.

"Somehow, Con… somehow… I will make this up to you; I'll find a way." She stood up and kissed him on the cheek and whispered something into his ear, and then she left the room. Closing the door behind her, she stood there for a moment in thought. She wondered… Area 51 had a ton of future technology; perhaps they could help her, give her something to wake Connor from his unconscious sleep… maybe… just maybe. She knew it was worth a try, at least. But, for now, she needed to get some sleep, and the waiting-room chair was going to have to suffice.

* * *

"Eric, please-"

"Shut up, Quinn!" Eric roar at Danny, as he had been for the past 10 minutes, telling him about how stupid he was and how much this was going to cost the government to fix. No doubt the airport would sue for the destruction, and for causing panic amongst the people there. "It seems to me that you are more trouble than you're worth, Quinn! Do you even have the slightest idea how much this will cost?" Danny tried to speak but Eric didn't give him time to. "Plus! We've lost two of your team to an anomaly! And on top of that! Three others are nowhere to be found!" His face was red with sheer anger and his voice got louder and louder until he was spitting in Danny's face.

Eric breathed deeply, trying to calm himself. Rubbing a hand over his stressed face, he tried hard to regain his logical sense and see past the anger fuming inside of him. "The most… logical decision I can come to is… well, that's going to be between me and the Prime Minister… for now, Quinn," he was saying in a strained, calm-attempt, voice. "Get this mess cleaned up, and go home… your assistance is no longer required for the day… I'll see you tomorrow." He left without hesitation, and didn't wait for a reply.

Danny knew he couldn't go home and sleep; even though it was starting to get dark… he wouldn't be able to sleep at all tonight, worrying about Sarah and Becker. What were they going to do? How were they going to get them back to the present? Or _were_ they going to get them back, at all? He would never sleep… no, so he thought of something that he could do to take his mind off it… he went to a bar to get a drink… or 5.

And, when he got there, he did just that… he drank his heart out and tried to forget his worries… and that he did, but he also forgot more than he wanted to... or so he would find out in the morning…

* * *

Morning came faster than Alex had wanted, he couldn't sleep through the night steadily… he had dreams; horrible, horrible dreams. Dreams about the masked doctors drilling into his skull and putting whatever it was they'd put into his brain. He was remembering what he probably shouldn't be remembering… they'd done something to him, but what? Or perhaps… perhaps he was just really going mad… he didn't know which frightened him more.

But, as the sun rised, he knew that he had to continue on and try to get through the day's work and head to London as soon as possible. Mental or not, he still had to find Dian, and perhaps he could figure out what Area 51 had done to him when he found Cutter.

For now, he worked… and worked, and worked, and worked. But, the "visions" were starting to get worse and affect him more and more. Only this time, he was seeing different things… started seeing the inside of Area 51 and the things that were there… they were horrible. He saw bloodshed and fear and panic… he saw sacrifice and pain and tragedy… but most of all… most of all, he saw the military doing things that no one should ever do.

He saw every secret that Area 51 had to offer, and what he was seeing wasn't even half of what there was… why was this happening to him? He had never had so much knowledge of government programs and secrets in all his life… but now it was coming to him in intervals, like the information was being downloaded very painfully into his very brain… but for what purpose?

"GAHHH!" he yelled painfully as another vision ended, leaving him worn and sweating and hurting. He dropped to his knees, the pain proving more than he could handle, and his hands gripped at his hair as the agony ripped in his brain… he couldn't take much more of this, but he knew that he wasn't going to stop happening. He just had to get through the work day… then he would be able to worry about this… and hopefully resolve it.

Being in Australia was weird for him… maybe not as weird as the anomalies had been, or the visions he's been having, but weird none-the-less. He'd seen at least two kangaroos at a watering-hole nearby, and he'd never seen a kangaroo before in his life… then there was the heat, oh the endless heat… it was unbearable. Of course, he was used to the rainy and cold weather of London… so he was probably just exaggerating.

He was hoeing a ditch when he heard a sonic screeching in his ears, and he dropped down to his knees hard, covering his ears with his hands, doing no good to block the sound. It was the only thing he could hear, it was in his own head and it was about the burst his brain or eardrums. He blacked out… not that he'd fallen unconscious, but he just couldn't see anything. He could still hear the screeching, and he could feel the ground beneath him, but he couldn't see a thing. Then it felt like someone had punched him in the face…

The screeching stopped, and he slowly opened his eyes, finding he could see again. He didn't want to move, he was afraid the noise would start again. Then his eye caught something in the distance… a light… a shimmering light… an anomaly. He lifted his head from the ground so slowly, and stared at it with astonishment. No… it had to be a coincidence; the mysterious screeching just happened to happen at the same time an anomaly appeared… yeah, a coincidence…

Alex lifted himself from the ground, his muscles flexing as he pushed against the ground to stand himself up. And, very reluctantly, he went out into the field where the anomaly was and approached it. He looked around him to make sure no one else was seeing the anomaly, or watching him. He carefully slipped through the anomaly, finding himself in the present still… and in London.

He swallowed hard… coincidence? Not so much… "What the hell?" his voice was a whisper and his heart was thudding hard in his chest, blood pounding in his ears.

* * *

"So, Mike… how did you get here? I mean, why did you come through the anomalies?" asked Becker as he ate the mysterious meat Mike had cooked for their breakfast. He didn't even want to know what it was he was eating.

"It started about a year ago actually… I went through one of those things and I've not been able to find my way back since."

"A year? That's horrible! You've been here for a year with no one to take care of you?" Sarah said dramatically, acting like a mother with a lost child.

Mike gave her a weird look. "I'm not 5 years old, thank ya very much. And yes… I have. But, I've learned how to take care of myself, and how to survive in the different time periods."

Becker prodded him further, "And where did you originally come from? Your accent is American, right?"

"Yeah, southern actually, even though I may not sound like the old country folk you probably think of when you hear that… East Tennessee, raised but unfortunately not born. See, I was born in Cardiff, England, but my mom sent me to live with my grandparents in America when I was 6… just old enough so that I can remember my parents," his voice got quieter as he spoke.

"Right," Becker said with a little sympathy. "Well, Mike… we can help each other to get back to the present, if you'd like."

Mike laughed. "Yeah, sure… if you want to tag along with me ya can, but just as long as you don't slow me down or anything." He got a few things out of his backpack and laid out a sort of map onto the table. "So… what's our next step? Where do we go from here?" The map was a map of the timelines and past anomalies… he'd recorded all he knew about the anomalies and even wrote possible predictions… this kid… he was a genius.

Becker stared at him in astonishment… He reminded him so much of Connor… more than anything, and it was almost scary how much he reminded him of him…

There was a thud from outside, and Mike jerked his head up, immediately running to the corner of the cabin and grabbed a rifle and two hand guns, one of which he handed to Sarah, and the other to Becker, even though Becker already had his gun that he'd brought with him. "Be careful, guys… I don't want to be responsible for your deaths." He stood in front of the cabin door, preparing for a battle with whatever prehistoric creature was out there, smelling for its next meal… which could potentially be them…

* * *

**TBC in Chapter(what else?) 11!**

**Eh... this one is a little short, but hey, to be fair, it's like 3am right now and i've just finished it... what can I say, i'm a dedicated writer. :)**

**Hope you're enjoying it! I've got a lot planned for Chapter 11, but first I need to sleep! ;) **

**Please Review! And one word- Connor. Discuss. ;)**


	11. Chapter 11

Jenny's doctor had informed Cutter that she was out of surgery and ready to be seen. And, at that, he left the spot where he'd been standing in the hallway, where he'd been watching Dian sleep, like he used to do when she was little… he would sit there for hours and watch a her slow, shallow breathing as she slept peacefully… he missed those days; when things were peaceful, and far more simple.

He walked into Jenny's hospital room; she was sitting up in the bed, her expression hard for Cutter to read. Until she looked up when he walked in and then he could see pure fear run through her eyes.

Jenny's heart beat fast in her chest, making the machines beep loudly, as fear engulfed her; just seeing Cutter now made her fear for her life… he'd shot her, and she'd nearly died. It was clear that this Nick was nothing like hers.

The heart monitors beeped loudly, and her chest hurt like hell from the thudding in her now scarred heart.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Her doctor ran in and looked at the heart monitor. "Hey, calm down, you can't get this excited right after heart surgery." He pulled out a needle and filled it with some kind of liquid and injected it into her arm.

Cutter stood there, frozen, as the beeping slowed down to a normal rhythm.

"There now," said the doctor. He looked at Cutter and asked, "What did you do to her?"

He was slightly taken aback by the accusation. But, really… it was his fault. "She's afraid of me… look, if I can just have a second alone with her; I need to explain to her what happened."

The doctor eyed back and forth from him to her a few times. "Fine. But, if anything else happens, I'm throwing you out." He slowly walked out as Cutter gave him a reassuring nod.

When the doctor was gone, Cutter cautiously approached Jenny's bed. He didn't make eye contact until he started to speak to her. "Cluadi-" he broke off and started again. "Jenny… I know what you must be thinking, but, I swear… I did not shoot you. I couldn't shoot you; there was no way I could ever pull that trigger when you look exactly like my Claudia…"

His face was so familiar to her, and the same familiar Scottish accent came out of the familiar mouth… but she had to stop herself from slipping into that mindset; thinking that she'd gotten Nick back, and that she could be happy again. This wasn't him… and she needed to make sure she realized that.

She spoke slowly, her voice coming out raspy and in a whisper. "If you didn't shoot me," she almost winced at the memory of the bullet ripping through her flesh, but she continued, "then who did?"

"One of my men, Benjamin Danfield… and he tried to finish you off, but I killed him before he could…" He paused, staring into her eyes compassionately. "I'm so sorry… I should never have aimed my gun at you. I was wrong to get so angry. I acted irrationally. I-"

"It's okay, Cutter," she interrupted him. "I'm just glad it wasn't you who'd shot me."

His eyes narrowed. "Why is that?"

She laughed quietly. "Because if you had… I would have a bullet in my head, not my shoulder." They both laughed, and this was only the second time she'd seen him with a smile on his face… even his smile was familiar.

"So, you believe me? Just like that, no question?"

"Well… you have a very honest face," it was a joke, but she knew it was true; she couldn't not trust him… his personality may be a good bit different but he was more like her Nick in many ways…

He nodded, serious again. "Thank you," he said simply. He didn't want to push, and he didn't want to upset her but he unfinished business… he had to ask. "Jenny?" She looked at him attentively. "Do you know where Claudia Brown is? Forgive me for asking, but last time I didn't get an answer… mind you, there was a gun in your face, but…" He smiled a little and waited for a reply, hoping he hadn't upset her.

She sighed. "No, I don't know where she is… I've never seen her in my life, I'm sorry, Cutter." He hung his head. She could see exactly how worried he was about her. "I'm sure she's fine, Cutter," she said to him, reassuringly and took his hand in hers. "It'll be okay…" But in truth, she had absolutely no right to say that… she had no idea where Claudia was and no idea if _anything_ was going to be okay.

* * *

Dian jerked awake, screaming from the dreams that shrouded her unconscious and conscious mind. She couldn't stop seeing it, every time she closed her eyes; Connor's painful, blood curling screams of agony as the knife cut through his flesh, deep.

She hadn't even slept… no, she'd merely _thought_ she was sleeping; she'd only dreamed with her eyes closed; she'd dreamt what she was constantly thinking of already. She was undoubtedly more tired now than she had been before she'd tried to sleep… there was no rest to be had for her, not until she made sure Connor got out of this safely.

As she stood up from the chair, her phone started ringing to the tune of "Smile" by Uncle Kracker… her heart nearly stopped when she heard the song coming from her phone… there was only one person she'd programmed that song to.

She looked down at her pocket… it couldn't be. Quickly, she took the phone in her hand and saw the screen reading "Alex Winchester". She almost didn't have the courage to answer it; but she did. "Hello?" she barely made it more than a whisper.

"Dian? Is-Is that you?" his voice became frantic, but in a good way; he sounded excited, happy.

"Alex?" She smiled. After six years it was so good to hear his voice, but how was he calling her? It seems phones don't typically work when they are entire timelines apart. "Alex, where are you? How are you calling me?" She couldn't believe it, and she couldn't stop smiling.

"Uh, I'm in London… I'm using a phone booth. Oh, Dian it is so good to hear your voice… I thought-I thought you were dead…" She could hear the relief in his voice. "Where are you? Are you here, in London?"

"No, no; I'm in Sussex, actually, at a hospital-"

"What? Are- are you okay? Why are you at the hospital? Dian, is everything alright?" He was frantic again; worried.

"Alex, calm down… yes, I'm fine; it's just… It's a long story. I'll give you directions, you can come here and I'll explain everything, yeah?"

"Yeah, yeah, of course." He paused, not speaking for a moment. Then he asked, "Dian… is your dad there?" his voice was solemn.

"Um… yeah, he is. Why?"

He didn't speak for a few seconds… "Heh… I, uh… was just wondering. So, what are the directions?" he went off topic.

She read out the directions to him and then hung up. It would take him about an hour to get here by train.

* * *

Danny woke up, his head hurting with the bad hangover he had. He'd drunk more than he'd intended to last night. Apparently far _too_ much to drink… he didn't have the slightest clue where he was; it looked like someone's basement or something.

Then Danny saw some come down the stairs, the man stopped when he saw that Danny was awake. "Ah, you've finally woken," he said, his voice familiar, although more raspy… it was Danny… only older, it seemed… not by much, but this him wore glasses and wore suspenders… nothing like Danny. The man laughed as he watched Danny's shocked face. "I know what you're thinking- How can I look like you?" He laughed. "Well, it really is a long story, but I'm from a parallel universe, you see-"

"I know," Danny interrupted.

The man looked impressed. "Hm, perhaps I've underestimated you, then. What is your name?"

Danny was confused. "Shouldn't we have the same name?"

"Oh, well I don't know. That just depends on what's happened with the timelines… what's your name?" he inquired again.

"Danny Quinn…"

His twin smiled. "You see! My name is Jason Hale."

"How… why?"

"Well, you know; if something in a timeline is changed, sometimes it changes the course of someone's life while not affecting that person in another timeline. Claudia Brown for instance; she's Jenny something here, correct? Well, same principle with you and me." All the while he was talking, he was walking around the room, dabbling with random object like a mad scientist who's brain was running at a hundred miles per hour, thinking about a billion things at once.

"Okay," Danny said skeptically. "So, you're me… and I'm you… basically?"

"Mhmm," Jason replied.

"Okay, well why am I here? More importantly, how did I get here?"

Jason chuckled, amused at the memory. "I found you last night… you were drunk and wandering around outside on the street…" he laughed again. "… Yelling at a tree, yes… you were yelling… at a tree. So, I took you here and you passed out shortly after. It's fascinating, really; parallel universes… I just had to come here when the anomaly opened at Area 51."

"Wait, wait… Area… 51?"

"Mm… yes."

"Right, okay… if we're the same person, then why do you look older than me?"

"Oh, yes! That's quite an interesting story actually. I was working on an experiment in my lab one day, and, needless to say, it went quite wrong… age me about 6 years… it was a very strange phenomenon, really…" He shrugged off the thought and continued rummaging through things in the room.

"You haven't happened to see my friends, have you? Dian, Connor, or Abby?" He was about to describe them, but Jason interrupted.

"Yes, yes… Mr. Cutter told me he was with them in Sussex, I believe."

"Wait, did you say Cutter? …as in, Nick Cutter?"

"Yes, he came from our world." Jason saw the look on Danny's face. "Why?"

"It's just… here, Cutter is… well, he's dead."

"Oh, I'm so sorry," he said, his eye brows arching, he looked at the floor for a moment. "Well, I imagine you'd like to see him then, eh?" He cracked a smile.

"What are you thinking?"

Jason walked up to him and laid a hand on his shoulder. "Looks like we're heading to Sussex." He smiled widely and laughed a little.

* * *

Becker had to hand it to him… Mike was a genius _and_ he was pretty good with guns. The creature outside wouldn't leave; it ripped at the door trying to get at them. It backed away once and started circling around the building.

Mike opened the door carefully, and when he spotted the creature, he knew exactly what it was. "Suchomimus, defiantly a predator… I mean, this guy is no smaller than 36 feet long… he's gotta weigh at least 2 tons…" He shut the door quickly and turned to them. "Whata ya think?"

Becker replied. "I think we can't just wait for it to break down the cabin and attack us. You're the genius… what do we do?"

Mike thought for a minute, and then he smiled. "Ha… we get it to leave." Becker gave him a look. "Think about it; we can't just kill things here. Anything we do will affect our future… ya know, squash a bug and your dad was never born… it's common sense; we can't just kill things, it could change the future."

"Then _how_ do we get it to leave, smart-ass?"

He grimaced at Becker. "We simply…" he looked around the room and smiled, picking up a flare-gun. "Distract it. You're strong, soldier-boy, throw this out the back window as far away as you can when the Dino is looking. It should run after it, and we can have a chance to get out of here."

Becker nodded and grabbed the flare-gun, pointing at the window while Mike gathered up his things, preparing to run when they had the chance. He fired the gun when the creature came around to see it, and just as they'd thought, it ran after it, roaring madly.

Sarah, Mike and Becker ran out of the cabin and headed in the opposite direction. They stopped when they had gotten far enough away, hiding behind a large rocky hill. Sarah and Becker were huffing from the running, but Mike was used to it. He just let them catch their breath. Then he spotted something in the distance. "Guys! Look, it's another anomaly!" He ran to it, Becker and Sarah following.

"Where does it lead to?" Sarah asked.

Mike stuck his head through and smiled when he pulled it back. He laughed. "It looks like the present… possibly the future… I'm not sure. But, it's better than here, so either way." He jumped through it without waiting for a response.

Sarah and Becker looked at each other but jumped through behind him, finding on the other side, something that made Mike stop dead in his tracks.

He hadn't realized before… "Oh crap… it's Area 51." He swallowed hard; there were a lot of memories for him here.

"Area 51? Um… so is this the present, then?" Sarah asked.

"Yeah… and I remember this place from when I was little. My dad always told me how much he hated this place… how much he hated Nick Cutter."

"Wait, Nick Cutter? Your dad knew Nick Cutter?"

"Yep, he hated him… and Nick hated my dad… from what I remember, and when I visited my dad last year, he had beating marks from where Nick had tortured him. My dad told me that Nick is a cold-hearted soldier."

"Cutter? No… he's got to be mistaken; Cutter's not like that… who's your dad, Mike?"

"Connor Temple… my mom is Abby Maitland."

Becker and Sarah exchanged looks. This was defiantly getting curiouser and curiouser…

* * *

An hour and 20 minutes later, Alex walked through the doors of the hospital, asking the nurses if they'd seen Dian Brown. One of them told him that she was in room 204 visiting a patient.

He found the room and opened the door. Dian was standing next to the bed, looking at the man that was laying there. "Dian!" Alex nearly yelled, smiling wide.

She jerked her head up and smiled too. "Alex!" she jumped up and ran to him, giving him a huge hug. "Oh, God, Alex… it's so good to see you! You have no idea how much I've missed you…" She felt a tear of happiness welling in her eye.

"Jeez… Dian I honestly thought you were dead." He sighed happily. "I love you, Dian… I've missed you more than anything."

"I-I missed you, too Alex… I'm so sorry I've been gone so long." They pulled away, both smiling.

Alex turned his attention to Connor. "So, who's this?"

"Oh, Connor Temple… he's a friend I met here." She neglected to mention they sort of had a thing… yeah, like she was going to tell her ex-fiancé that… plus, he's only her _ex_-fiancé because she disappeared for six years.

"What's happened to him?" He walked over to the bed and looked at the bandages he had all over him.

"His alternate self did this to him… put him in a coma. Made me watch…" she said in a small voice.

He turned to her, his eyes worried and sympathetic. "I'm so sorry. You care about him very much, don't you?" He looked back to Connor. "Will he ever wake up?" he asked.

"They don't know… they said he probably wouldn't, but… I know he will… he has to."

Alex thought about everything that had been happening to him. "Dian… I think maybe I can help your friend…"

Her eyes narrowed. "How?"

"I'm not sure yet… Look, things have been happening to me and I'm… I'm not entirely sure what it is but… I think I might be able to help… I can at least try." He looked confidently at Connor. "Let me try…" he whispered. He closed his eyes and focused hard, putting a hand on Connor's forehead and immediately seeing the pictures again; he saw a computer database, a file on Temple, Connor… he saw everything about him. But, he focused deeper, trying to keep thought away from the pain.

He saw the make-up of the human brain, and he saw molecules and cells and then all the different complexities of… everything. He let go, breathing hard and sweating, Dian's hand on his shoulder. "Are you okay?" she nearly yelled. "You were having a fit or something."

"I'm fine," he said quickly. "I know what to do…" He went to the medicine drawers and picked through the thousands of different bottles of medicines, and mixed a few of them… a few very strong medicines.

"Alex, what the hell are you doing? You can't do that… You could kill him."

"No, no… I saw it, I saw everything Dian. I know what can wake up the part of his brain that is sleeping… I saw how it works… I _know_ this will work." His eyes were wide with thought and excitement. He looked her in the eyes deeply. "This _will_ work… I promise." She nodded hesitantly and he walked to Connor, putting the needle full of the concoction into the tub attached to his arm. Before injecting it, he looked at Dian. "Shut the door, please." She did so and he proceeded. Taking a deep breath, Alex pushed on the needle, injecting the liquid into Connor's bloodstream.

He pulled away when the needle was empty, but nothing happened. He waited, his heart beating fast in anticipation. The heart monitor suddenly started beeping faster and faster, rapidly. He saw Connor's body flex, jerking a few times in a muscle spasm and then he went limp, the heart monitor flat lining.

Dian's heart almost stopped at the sound of the flat line, her eyes ran wildly over Connor… she couldn't move, she just stood there and they waited…

Connor's eyes flew open and the heart monitor started again, he drew in a deep, long breath and then was breathing in quick gasps. "Ugh… my head… _really_ hurts," is the first thing he said.

Dian laughed uncontrollably, that was so Connor. She ran to him and gave him a big huge, despite the bark of pain from the wounds.

She only had a moment to greet back to conscience when the doctors and nurses came rushing in, having heard the flat line. They were shocked and speechless to see Connor awake and all his vitals and brain functions normal. The doctor grabbed the needle from Alex's hand at glared at him angrily. "What did you do?"

He handed him the medicine bottle that he had mixed. "I had a breakthrough…" He shrugged, the doctor gawking at him in astonishment.

Dian yelled out the room. "Abby! Connor's awake!" She smiled at him and kissed his forehead. "I missed you, Con."

He did that half-smile and replied, "Missed you too, Dian. I feel like I'm dead though." He laughed.

She laughed too. "Well, to be fair… you did just die for a moment."

He nodded the sideways nod that was so him, and that Dian missed so much. "That would explain it…" He smiled and leaned his head back, wincing a little at the pain, but couldn't stop smiling and neither could Dian. Connor was back and he was going to be okay…

* * *

**TBC in Chapter 12!**

**:D Connor's awake! Happy overload? YES! ;)**

**And Mike- C.'s son! :O oh my... this could be VERY interesting!**

**PLUS, Danny's alternate is a mad scientist named Jason! Say what?**

**AND! Alex has become increasing... strange... there's definatly something wrong with him, but WHAT?**

**PLEASE REVIEW! Much to come in chapter 12! Thank you for reading, reviews incourage my writing so thank you to all who review. :)**


	12. Chapter 12

**FINAL CHAPTER! Sad, no? :(**

**I would like to use a related quote here- _"Any poo-flinging monkey can write a beginning, but endings... endings are a different story. Endings are hard... endings are impossible, and there will always be things you don't like about them, there will always be holes; you can never tie up every loose end, and people are always going to bitch and moan. But, at the end of the day, you know they are inevitable. Yes... endings are hard."- Chuck the prophet from "Supernatural"_**

**I hope i've written a fitting ending, though... enjoy. :)**

* * *

For the first time, Mike's face was evidently scared. He was backing away, towards the anomaly. "We have to leave… we can't stay here." He turned around and ran a little ways, smacking into the wall as the anomaly disappeared in front of him."Ow," he said as he lay on his back against the floor. He groaned slightly, trying to shake off the pain.

"Michael C. Temple," stated a voice that came from behind them. Mike froze, his eyes widened and his heart pounding hard against his ribs. The woman came up to Becker and Sarah and flashed a detective badge in their face. "Detective Lauren Winchester. You two are under arrest for aiding a known criminal, you know your rights." She gestured for the security to come and they put handcuffs on both Becker and Sarah.

Detective Winchester went to Mike and had two of the coppers pick him up and hold him as he struggled. "Long time, no see, Lauren. Seen my dad much while I was gone?" He smiled, knowing they had a past together… meaning when Laruen's dad died, C. had comforted her; physically comforted her. Mike knew she still had certain feelings for his dad, and he planned to use that against her.

She narrowed her eyes, anger spreading, and grabbed him by the shirt. "Don't you think for a second that just because you're a kid, I won't taser you, you little punk."

He smiled. "Yeah, we all know that from the last time I was here. Two years ago, right? You nearly killed me… and your friend nearly killed my dad."

She let go of him but got right up into his face, so close he could feel her breath. "Nick Cutter is no friend of mine," she whispered harshly.

"I don't mean to interrupt," Sarah said. "But, what exactly has he done? And why are you arresting us? We had no idea he was a criminal."

Lauren turned to them. "That may be… that just _may_ be. But we can't take the chance; Michael has many cohorts, and they all wreak havoc here." She addressed the guards, "Take them away." And they did so, only Mike struggling in their grip.

Becker walked quietly and submissively along with the guards. They took them through the building; it was large and every wall was made of metal. Glass windows looked into rooms where they were conducting all different types of experiments. There were countless rooms, some that were closed off and you couldn't see into, and some that were labeled "Top Secret, Do Not Enter Without Authorization" which was weird… wouldn't that be everywhere in this building?

He laughed at the thought, earning a slap in the back of the head from the guard. "Shut up," he demanded in a deep, cold voice.

They were taken to a large room with a two-way mirror and thrown in, the guards locking the door behind them, leaving Becker, Sarah and mike in the room alone. It was brightly lit, the walls white and a single table stood in the middle of the room with 4 chairs around it.

"Becker, what are we going to do?" it was Sarah who asked, her voice evidently worried.

"We tell the truth… simple as that," he replied calmly.

* * *

Cutter came out of the room just in time to see Dian coming from Connor's room… with Alex Winchester. He felt anger burn beneath his skin. He'd left that idiot back at Area 51 under legal arrest for tampering with a government secret.

Dian and Alex came to Cutter, or rather _Alex_ came to him while Dian tried to stop him from going in that direction… her dad had never gotten along with Alex… he practically hated him.

Alex gave a greeting nod to Cutter. "Mr. Cutter," his face looked obviously brooding, but his voice was polite and respectful, as if he was saying 'have a nice day' but thinking 'Die you evil bastard' which could very well be what he was thinking.

"Winchester," Cutter's voice hid nothing at all; he was pissed and Dian knew that he would not only show it with words… she wouldn't doubt that her dad might would take a punch at Alex right here, right now.

"Before you go off on me for escaping the prison you left me in, I need you to tell me something, soldier-boy," Alex said.

"Alex!" Dian warned angrily; it would only make Cutter angrier if he called him names, which was something Alex didn't usually _ever_ do, even with Cutter… something was different, I mean he seemed to be hating Cutter just as much as Cutter hated him… which usually wasn't the case.

"It's alright, Dian… let the idiot speak."

Dian was about to yell at him too, but Alex's hand flew up in front of her face to silence her swiftly, and he continued. "What have you and Area 51 done to me?" he asked directly.

Cutter's face turned from angry to surprised and knowing. "What?"

Alex laughed a single, humourless laugh. "You know very well what. I've been seeing things, in my head… visions about… everything!" his voice became loud and angry. "I woke this dimension's Connor from a coma! I did that by seeing it in my head; seeing what needed to be done; seeing what no one knew yet! Before that, I opened an anomaly with my mind! Now don't you give me that fucking look like you have no idea what the hell I'm talking about! _What_ have you done to me!" He was right in Cutter's face, eyes burning with the fury of hell itself… what had happened to him? Dian had never heard him so angry or heard him use that type of language before.

Cutter swallowed hard, resisting the urge to back away submissively. He explained, "Area 51 ordered us to use you as an experimental simulation," he began slowly. "We tried to put… a computer in your brain; to give you the knowledge of… future, past, present… everything. We aimed to give you all knowledge of Area 51 and the government itself; to put every file on record into your head.

We had the greatest scientific minds working on your brain, to achieve that. One of which is my best friend… and God knows he didn't want to do it to you; but he had no choice… Jason couldn't refuse to do the operation, they would have-" He broke off and paused, then continued. "They would've killed him… and me if I had tried to stop them. We thought that it didn't work; because your brain seemed completely normal, and we asked you question after question, but you knew nothing… so we wiped your memory of it all and thought you were none-the-wiser… we were wrong about everything, apparently."

Alex didn't look mad anymore, he looked confused; his eyebrows arching and his breathing a little fast. "So… what, I have a computer in my head?"

"Evidently… yes. And, unfortunately for you; we have no idea how this will affect your mind. You could very easily go insane, develop a tumor, become destructive; developing an alter-ego, or even just die altogether. We don't know what this could do to you. Hell, we don't even know how it would work; it was all guesswork and theories."

"Dad… how could you let that happen? You-"

"Dian, please!" Alex shouted, uncharacteristically. He immediately felt guilty. He closed his eyes and sighed, and didn't open his eyes as he spoke to her gently. "I need to handle this… please, Dian… I need to talk to your dad alone." Opening his eyes, he looked to her, his eyes begging.

She nodded and smiled warily, deciding to leave and go find Abby, who'd been gone for at least half an hour, nowhere to be found. Of course, no one had been exactly _looking_ for her; she'd just gone to get something to eat from the vending machine.

Turning the corner, Dian looked at the vending machine which was devoid of Abby. But when Dian looked closer, she saw a piece of paper taped to the machine.

Plucking it off, it read, 'What's worse than losing the ones you love? That is: watching those you love suffer horribly. It's one thing to watch someone be killed, but it's another to watch them die slowly and painfully… I can't tell you how happy I am to see my Abby alive again. I tell you in warning that she's mine and I intend to keep the love of my life… but don't worry; I'll take real good care of her. And, for my favorite bastard soldier; I give you fair warning- Area 51 will soon to be no more than a lump of ash… I shall achieve this with the help of someone who you thought was on your side… deceit is truly bliss… Your divine destroyer, C.' and it was signed with a smear of blood.

"He has Abby," she whispered, frozen where she stood. What was she going to do? She couldn't go to the police, and C. made sure of that by smearing blood on this paper. If she turned the evidence in to the police, they would only find that it was this dimension's Connor's blood… and _he_ would be blamed for the kidnapping. She had to hand it to him… C. was good… he was _very_ good.

Dian turned the corner as fast as she could, holding out the paper to Cutter. "C. has Abby."

He took the paper, confused. "Who's C.?"

She explained while he read the note, his eyes beginning to widen. "C. is Connor from our timeline. Ya know… the one you nearly killed." She looked at him gravely. "I told you this was all your fault," she added in a whisper so quiet he may not have heard her.

* * *

Detective Lauren Winchester stood in front of the table in the solitary, white room, while the three prisoners sat on the opposite side. She just glared at them for a while, no doubt trying to psych them out or something that cops do when trying to break people.

Becker knew how this worked; he was on the same side of the law she was. He may not have a badge or anything, but he knew the legalities. He wasn't going to let her get to him. "Detective Winchester? What exactly is the nature of your business with us? What do you want to know? And, more importantly, why are we being held prisoners without knowing the cause?" he asked smoothly, lifting both his eyebrows and smiling slightly.

She looked at him, a little impressed. "Michael, here has broken more laws than I could count. His most recent being two years ago when he broke in here trying to steal governmental technology. He claimed that he just wanted it for himself, but I know him better than that… he was trying to steal it for his father." She gave Mike a knowing look then turned back to Becker. "We still have countless charges on him, and he's going straight to prison. But, you two are here because you were with him. Aiding a criminal is a federal offense. Now, we can lay charges on you two, but I'm going to make a deal with you.

If you can tell me where Connor Temple is… then you're free to go."

"Leave my father out of this!" Mike almost yelled.

"Ha… Your father is the one who started all of this, Michael. Long before you were even born… and yet still when you were an infant. Why do you think he sent you to America? Hmm?" He didn't respond. "To keep you away from everything he was doing. To give you a better life than he had. He was then and is now… a criminal. And you've made a whole mess for yourself as well."

Becker interrupted. "I'm sorry… but we don't know where this timeline's Connor Temple is."

"Well… we'll see about that with a lie detector test, and a little prodding." She smiled at him.

* * *

Back at the ARC, Eric was nearly dying. The Prime minister was yelling at him for losing the entire team, and had scheduled for Lester to come back on Monday, which was three days from now. Worst of all, anomalies were off the hook; opening up every five minutes, it seemed like… and he had no team to go out and close them.

He was fidgeting in his chair, restlessly when he heard the front door of the ARC open with a slam. He went to see who it was, and saw Connor who was holding a tied up Abby on his shoulder. Connor announced dramatically, "Hello, one and all! And welcome! Welcome to the valley of hell! May your stay here be… magnificent!" His eyes were dark and cold and a sly smile formed on his lips. He held a gun and pointed it to the A.D.D. "You really won't be needing such an annoyance, here in the valley of hell." No hesitation… he destroyed this time's Connor's work of art with a few bullets.

"If anyone tries to run… well, I do enjoy moving target practice." He smiled demonically. Walking slowly and casually through the room, he recited a bible verse, "'although I walk through the valley of death… I shall fear no evil: for thou art with me; they rod and thy staff, they comfort me.' Ignorance is bliss," he stated. He then, unexpectedly pointed his gun into someone's face, his expression serious and angry. "Do you fear evil?" The person was terrified and didn't answer. C. cocked the gun. "It's a simple question! Do. You. Fear. Me?" he yelled at the innocent person.

"Yes-yes…" The person stuttered nervously, shaking with fear.

C. smiled again. "Wrong answer." He pulled the trigger… blood splattered against his own face and people around the entire room screamed in horror. "Welcome to the valley of death…" he whispered. He heard the ARC soldiers cock their own guns and he held his up to Abby's head. "Make even the slightest move and she dies!"

The soldiers looked at one another and slowly lowered their guns. Eric came down from Lester's office and yelled at them. "What are you waiting for? Shoot him!"

"Sir," the nearest soldier said. "He'll kill Miss Maitland."

"And?" He lowered his voice to a harsh whisper. "Sacrifice her to kill him… or many others are bound to die. Now… shoot him," he demanded.

C. pointed his gun in Eric's direction. "Would you say the same if it was your life on the line?" He smiled.

Eric paused for a moment. He glared at C. and walked directly to him, positioning the gun direct to his own face. "Yes," he answered.

"Foolish… but understandable." He grew tired of this and shot Eric in the shoulder, leaving him to bleed on the ground. He walked away and threw Abby down onto a chair and pointed his finger at her. "You… stay." Walking over to the computers he said, "Alright technology… let's get started." He cracked his knuckles.

* * *

Connor didn't take well to being told that C. had taken Abby; he ran out of the room and yelled at the nurses who were trying to stop him from leaving.

"Connor! Connor!" Dian was yelling at him. She grabbed him and forced him to face her.

"What?" he yelled frantically.

"First of all," she started. "Your gown is open…"

He was still in his hospital gown and the back had fallen open, leaving his bum for everyone to see. He blushed and held it closed quickly.

She held back a laugh and continued. "Secondly, you need to calm down. Look, all we have to do is figure out where they are. And, where would C. take Abby?" He gave her a blank, terrified look. "Think Connor," she begged.

"He would take her back to your world?"

"Exactly, but he can't do that without the right technology to open an anomaly… soooo, where would he go to get that technology?" She smiled, waiting for him to understand.

"The ARC." He ran out the door, running into Danny as he was coming in the door. "Whoa!" His eyes widened slightly as he saw two Danny's. "I see you've met your double as well, Danny."

"Yeah and I don't like him," he said grumpily.

"Abby's been kidnapped by my double… no time to explain!" He ran out the door, heading to the car and was followed by Dian, Danny and Jason, Cutter and Alex.

They arrived at the ARC in less than 30 minutes; they'd taken a private plane to get back to London faster.

Connor had gotten dressed in the car. He made no hesitation, he wasn't thinking about the consequences; he ran straight into the ARC without stopping; bursting through the front doors and being greeted by C. pointing a gun at his head. But, Connor didn't stop walking; he walked straight up to C. "Abby!" he said with relief as he saw her unharmed in the chair.

He then turned his attention to C. "Let her go," he demanded.

C. smiled. "You're just in time, brother… I've just finished creating my way home." He held a small device in his hand and held it up, pressing a few buttons. In a split second, an anomaly opened. "You know… I'm surprised that you survived… I thought I'd gotten rid of you, Connor." He fake shivered. "It's weird calling you by my own name." He laughed. "Okay, okay," he said when he saw the lack of humour on Connor's face. "Let's cut the bull shit… You can either stay here and let me go with my wife, or…" He cocked his gun. "I can shoot you where you stand. Your choice, nerd-boy."

Connor glanced at Abby's face, seeing fear and worry in her expression. He had to save her… he had to be brave; to be a hero for her. It took very little thought… he moved his hand in a swift, lightning fast, movement, snatching the gun from C. and pointing it in between his eyes.

Shocked by his own movement and success, Connor stood there for a moment, frozen. And then acted like he knew what he was doing. His eyes were serious and darker than they'd ever been… swallowing hard, he said only one sentence to C. "I love Abby, and you will _never_ hurt her again." He closed his mind, and pulled back the trigger on the gun, flinching as the blood splattered.

No one moved… no one breathed. Silence. C. was dead.

Dian was the first to move, coming to Abby and untying her.

Abby immediately jumped at Connor, crying into his shoulder and hugging him tight. He jerked back to reality and hugged her back, his face still terrified. "Its okay, Abs… it's over; everything's going to be okay."

The others came up, Cutter standing over C.'s dead body. His face was expressionless. "He had a son, you know… With Abby…" he said to no one in particular.

Connor stared at Cutter. "A son…?" The realization that he'd just taken some kids father hit him hard. Maybe he'd acted impetuously… maybe he shouldn't have shot C.

Cutter took his mind away from the subject and looked at Dian. "It's time to go home, now." He went to her, putting his hand on her shoulder. "You see that your friends are safe now… I've got you back… now let's go home, baby."

She shook her head slightly. "What about mom?"

"I talked to Joe, one of my soldiers, and he has sent her home… she's safe. Everything will go back to normal, Dian. You're my daughter, I love you… please, let's just go home," he begged, pulling her towards the anomaly.

Alex came to her, snatching her from Cutter. "We can go home, and finish where we left off, Dian. We can be together again… get married like we'd planned. I love you." He smiled.

She looked from Cutter, to Alex, to Connor, her eyes sticking on Connor. Her bottom lip quivered. She shook her head. "No… I-I… can't leave." She knew from the beginning that it would be impossible to leave if she'd developed a connection with someone. But, that fact is… she loves Connor, whether he feels that same way or not; she didn't care, she just had to stay and be with him, even if it was just as friends… he'd admitted to loving Abby, and Dian wouldn't get in the way of that… but she would, wouldn't she?

Dian pulled away from Alex and went to Connor, kissing him on the cheek. A tear rolled down her cheek. "Don't go," he pleaded.

She laughed a little. "I think I have to, Con. You belong with Abby… it was wrong for me to get in the way of that… I don't belong here." She put her lips to his ear and whispered something, making a tear come from Connor's eye. "Goodbye, Con…" she said when she backed away.

Cutter, Alex, Dian, and Jason went through the anomaly, one by one. Dian paused briefly and waved goodbye and then disappeared through the anomaly reluctantly.

Connor sat down, Abby taking a seat beside him.

* * *

"Mike, are you aware of what's going to happen to you?" asked Detective Lauren as Mike was refusing to tell her where his father was. He didn't reply to her question. "I'll ask you one more time, Michael… Where is Connor Temple?"

"He's dead, Lauren… leave the poor boy alone," Cutter's voice came from the door.

She looked up at Cutter. "What?"

"I am your superior, Detective Winchester, and I said; leave the boy alone." He kissed her on the forehead like a father would do to his daughter. "Now, go get your brother away from my daughter, will you?"

"Alex is here? Dian's back? How much have I missed?" He laughed and guided her to the door, pushing her out and turning back to Mike, who was burning with anger at the sight of Cutter.

"Now, don't you give me that look… I want to help you, Mike. Before you say anything… I didn't kill your dad. And don't worry… I've got someone you can stay with." He smiled lightly.

* * *

The anomaly shimmered and Connor saw Becker and Sarah come through. They were greeted by Lester as well, who'd showed up after Danny had called him and summarized what had happened.

There was a bustle as everyone talked, trying to understand what had gone on with each other. Then the anomaly shimmered again, this time Dian walked through, Connor beaming when he saw her. But, she wasn't alone… she'd brought Mike with her.

Dian walked up to them. "Connor, Abby… this is Michael C. Temple. I thought that maybe you'd like to take care of him… seeing as how his dad is dead and all," she hinted to Connor.

"Mike… my name's Mike," he corrected her. "I can't believe you look just like my dad," he said, staring at Connor. "And you look like my mom…"

Connor and Abby exchanged glances and smiled in unison. Abby was the one to speak. "Yeah… we're gonna take good care of you, Mike." She grabbed his shoulder and walked him away, talking maternally to him.

Connor's eyes were grateful when he looked at Dian. "Thank you," he said and gave her a hug. He knew this would be the last time he saw her. He kissed her cheek and whispered into her ear, replying to what she'd said to him earlier, "I love you, too." Pulling away, they held hands for a moment.

Dian nodded at him, smiling contently, despite the tears in her eyes. And, she turned Abby, bidding her goodbye. "I'll miss you guys, Abby. I hope you have a good life… perhaps a much less… Exciting and dangerous life." She laughed, and Abby did too.

"Goodbye, Dian. We'll miss you, too."

She nodded again, and paused by Connor, giving him a final hug before disappearing through the anomaly again.

After a few seconds, the anomaly closed; parting the two universes forever…

Abby sighed. "Let's go home, Con," she said, exasperated.

He nodded. Lester came up to them before they could even move towards leaving. "I'm sorry I wasn't here to share this with you guys… actually I'm quite glad I wasn't here." He paused, eyeing Connor's cuts and bruises. "Just to show that I'm not as bad as you all think I am… I'm going to give you a week off to recover… and in return; I don't want to know the details of any of this."

Connor laughed. "Deal." He held his hand to shake Lester's but he just rolled his eyes and walked away. He grinned wide. "Yup… things are back to normal," he said to Abby. She hit him lightly and playfully, and headed for the door with Mike. Connor took a last look at C., noticing something in his hand… he reached for the device; it was the anomaly opening device… that opened anomalies to the parallel universe…

He slid the device into his vest secretly. "Connor, you coming?" Abby yelled to him from the front door.

"Yeah!" he yelled back, running to her and smiling as they left for the flat.

* * *

When they got to the flat, feeling the pain and exertion that had built up by the past events… Connor was in the most pain, of course. Abby told him to lay down on the couch and rest, and he did so gratefully.

Abby let Mike have Connor's room, temporarily of course… they might have to buy a bigger place if they were going to keep Mike with them. She then fed Rex, Sid and Nancy, and then went into the living room again, ready to crash.

Connor was snoring and she tugged at him, waking him from his slumber. "Wha-wat?" he said, confused as he woke up. "Hmm?"

"Go get in my bed, Con… you'll be more comfortable. I'll take the couch for tonight."

He shook his head. He pulled on the couch, sliding it into a bed. "I'm already comfortable; I don't wanna move…" He patted the spot beside him. "But you can join me if you want." He smiled.

She smiled back and surprised him by curling up into his side, careful not to touch his wounds. He laughed and wrapped his arms around her. She laid her head on his chest. "Connor?" she said quietly

"Yeah, Abs?"

"You said you loved me, you know…"

She felt him tense. He laughed a bit. "Did I?"

"Mhmm." She looked at his face and whispered, "I love you too… the one and _only_ Connor Temple." She smiled and leaned forward, pressing her lips to his.

She laughed when she pulled away and saw the look on his face. Putting her head back on his chest, she settled down to sleep.

Just as she was drifting off to sleep, Connor whispered, "I love you, Abby Maitland…" And he closed his eyes, letting him slip into unconsciousness with a smile on his face…

* * *

**No more "TBC"... I hope you have enjoyed this story! Please review, this being the most important time to review!**

**And now... this story bids you goodbye... (perhaps there will be a spin off if enough people demand it... I may write a sort of spin-off continuation type thing if you guys want me to... idk)**

**THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR READING AND THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR ALL YOUR LOVELY REVIEWS AND PRAISES! :)**


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